Posts tagged ‘this is my professional hat’

December 9th, 2010

Social isn’t a fad

It always surprises me when people talk about social technologies as ‘the latest fad.’ Yes, social media and social networking are relatively new, but what makes the technologies popular and engaging is not.

People crave relationships. Social tools are a way to fulfill that need. People want to be heard and valued by companies, peers, family, and friends. The social web provides that sense of belonging and value. Its tendrils reach beyond the internet into our lives on the go. For many, the only time we’re not ‘with our friends’ is when we’re sleeping. The rest of the day, we carry them with us on our computers and our phones. Our online relationships intermingle with our real lives and our real life relationships transcend our time spent online.

Friendships, conversing, being deeply engaged in relationships aren’t a fad. The way we relate may evolve; our social technologies will change. However, the basic need for companionship is part of who we are. Now that we’ve found a way to be in touch and feel closeness much of the time, do you think that’s going to go away so easily? I don’t.

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September 23rd, 2010

First impressions matter

First impressions are important. It’s not a groundbreaking idea; it’s something we’ve been hearing for as long as we’ve had ears. Both personally and professionally, making a good first impression matters and it’s true just as much for businesses as it is for individuals. For each potential customer, a first impression may mean the difference between a purchase or never coming back again. Bad first impressions come with a steep price tag.

So, given all we know about the importance of that initial interaction, how is it that businesses who are so good at managing first impressions with customers don’t extend the same know-how to future employees?

Businesses want to competitively attract and retain top talent, but they aren’t the only ones making judgment calls. They’d better believe future employees are sizing the company up from the instant of the first interaction -  looking at the website, being contacted by a company recruiter, reading a job posting. Companies need to think seriously about how they’re presenting themselves and be aware of how they’re being perceived.

  • How user friendly is the website? Is it easy to find job listings or nigh on impossible?
  • Is the application site easy to use? Does it repeatedly ask candidates to put in the same information? Is it slow?
  • Are there spelling errors in the job postings? Did someone leave Caps Lock on?
  • Are the listings designed to engage potential candidates or do they just regurgitate a list of generic job responsibilities? Does the listing really sell the job?
  • Are there redundant ads for the position on the same site?
  • Are listings being reposted on sites that misuse applicant information or mislead applicants about the process?
  • Is the company aware of where applicants may drop off/are dropping off in the online application process?
  • Can recruiters discuss open positions in an informed fashion?
  • Do the recruiters put their best foot forward on LinkedIn?
  • Are applicants kept informed? Are those involved with hiring kept informed?
  • Are candidates asked about their experience with the application process? Is feedback encouraged?

Brand management doesn’t stop at consumers. It needs to include how companies attract and interact with candidates. As a business, do you want to be confident, innovative, efficient, and trustworthy or are you unintentionally coming across as antiquated, unfocused, disorganized, cold, or even unprofessional?

If the goal really is to have the best people working for you and with you, be sure the hiring process does justice to your business. From the first moment right up until your new hire walks through the door, focus on effectively communicating that your company is a place each applicant would want to be employed. By the end of the process, we should either be clamoring to work for you or know that it won’t be a good fit. Either way, everybody wins – now and in the future.

First impressions are serious business… or at least they should be. Make sure your company is doing it right.

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September 9th, 2010

It's been quite a day

Earlier today, my team was laid off. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, but being laid off isn’t something for which you can be completely prepared emotionally or otherwise. Being the social networking sort, one of the first things I did was tweet about what had happened, including my job seeking status.

Our entire team was laid off this morning. Looking for a product manager? DM me or see http://www.professionalmacgyver.com for my info.

I expected a few retweets and support but I was overwhelmed by the endorsements, encouragement, kind words, inquiries, and job hunting suggestions. I definitely didn’t expect to be so kindly profiled as an “at-the-ready social media job seeker.” My experience certainly has been a ringing endorsement for the power of Twitter for networking and job seeking (and the kindness of strangers).

Thank you to everyone who provided words of support and encouragement today. For those who reached out to me about job possibilities, I’ll definitely be talking to you soon.  If you know someone in search of a clever, enthusiastic, and hard-working product manager, please point them in my direction.

In closing, I offer fresh pictures of the kitties.

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September 3rd, 2010

Popularity vs. Influence

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

- The Princess Bride

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Let’s talk about popularity (although if you’re like me, inconceivable leaps to mind). The word has sparked something of a debate about the power of numbers in social media. Is being popular the same as being influential? Can you be influential without being popular? Which came first? The chicken or the egg?

I’ve been watching the conversation and have been somewhat amazed at how popularity is being interpreted, particularly with regard to influence. I take issue with a few particular statements:

“Popularity is how many people hear what you say. Influence is how many people listen and react.”

and

“The popular person can lead the horse to water & the influencer makes them drink.”

I disagree with both of these statements. Strongly.

Popularity isn’t influence, or eyeballs, or getting horses to water. Popularity is an affinity for the association, not the content. It has nothing to do with how many people hear or see a message. All popularity promises is that that there will potentially be a large group exposed to the message. That’s it.

Popularity has nothing to do with volume or proximity. Popularity is potential.

I may know that it’s cool to hang around you, but I also may believe you’re an idiot. I’ll ignore whatever you say because I really have no desire to hear it. I’m sure you can think of a few good examples of this phenomenon.

Influence is built on trust, reputation, and consistency. Popularity is built on an X factor; it is, by nature, inherently perilous. Popularity requires no loyalty, no trust, and the audience can easily abandon you to go on to the next fascinating new thing. Use Hollywood as your reference.

Popularity and influence aren’t mutually exclusive, but they also aren’t dependent on each other. A popular person can become influential, but depending on how they’ve handled the popularity, it can be difficult. If you’ve cultivated your image as a vapid starlet, it’s hard to undo. If you’re already popular, you can grasp that opportunity as a role model, learn to better communicate, demonstrate consistency (and hopefully personal growth), and actively nurture relationships with your audience. Growing influence requires consciously tending to your flock, “I know you’re there. Thank you  for listening to me. Here’s what I have to say. You can trust this because you know me.”

Realistically, it’s almost easier for an influential person to become popular than the reverse. For someone who’s influential, it’s merely an extension of what they’re already doing. An influential person becomes popular because their audience actively shares their message. The circle of influence can expand exponentially.

Effectively conveying a message via a personality, in social media or elsewhere, requires a combination of popularity and influence – a larger audience coupled with the power to move that audience to action.

One influential person who shares your message with a small group (who in turn actually listen to and act upon that information) can do much more than someone who is popular – think of it as targeted advertising. Instead of presenting your message to everyone and hoping they’ll be interested, you find out who is interested, by virtue of the relevant influencer,  and present your message to a group that’s invested before you even get there.

Popularity is valuable, but it’s exponentially more valuable if influence and popularity go arm and arm. Make sense?

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September 1st, 2010

Why my Facebook page remains private

I’ve had more than one person ask me why I don’t have a public Facebook profile. In general, I have a fairly open social web presence.  Considering that most days I’m neck deep in social technologies, I spend a lot of time thinking about social connectivity and the ways we enable people to share information. I also pay fairly close attention to how I’m portraying myself online. I don’t limit myself to only tweeting or blogging about subjects relevant to my profession. I began blogging while I was planning my wedding and that’s pretty personal. Having an honest, authentic representation of myself online is important to me. That doesn’t mean, however, that the world needs to see all the intricacies of my life.

The bulk of my social profiles are general information sharing, but I treat my primary Twitter account (yes, I have multiple) and my Facebook profile differently.  I reserve Facebook for my close, personal social circle – family, high school and college friends, and other people who have been or are currently involved in my daily life. The information that group consumes and shares is very different than my Twitter friends or LinkedIn connections. They don’t care about my latest social media discovery, conference highlights, my infographics obsession, or a pithy quote about the internet.  They do care about my plans for the weekend, what’s going on with my family, and the occasional lolcat. The personal and sometimes private information I share on Facebook doesn’t belong in a search engine. It belongs with my friends. The bonus of Facebook is that I’m able to aggregate the relevant bits of my web presence in one place.

Yes, there’s overlap between my professional and personal social circles, but that overlap is a choice. It’s a choice I want my friends to make based on their interests. It’s a choice I make to not force feed irrelevant information to people who are only interested in one part of my life. It’s the same choice I made when I created a special account to tweet about wedding-related tidbits. The vast majority of my Twitter followers weren’t interested in my wedding planning, but there was another crowd that was very interested in wedding planning who definitely didn’t care about my professional interests.

Ultimately, social technologies are tools. I decide how best to maximize each tool’s capabilities. It’s my job to evaluate each social network on its own terms and determine how it best fits my life, my social circle, and my needs. Once I understand it as a user, I look at how best I can leverage that tool for my company. All too frequently, I see people trying to apply the same formula to their social presence across the board. They’re often the people who simply create redundant content instead of trying to master the nuances of each platform. They’re also “the collectors” who boast 10,000+ followers and follow just as many.

For those who espouse that the socially savvy need to have a certain number of LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook followers, I respectfully disagree. I think you’re missing the point. The shotgun approach to social media does a disservice to your followers and to your content. After all, social media is supposed to be a two-way street, isn’t it? Do you really think anyone is getting heard in the midst of all that noise?

Social engagement isn’t about numbers; it’s about relationships. Getting 10,000 people to follow you on Twitter doesn’t mean you understand social dynamics and relationships and it doesn’t mean you’re actually listening to anything those 10,000 people are saying.* When you’re following that many people, I assume you aren’t listening and in all likelihood, you probably won’t be a good investment of my time or attention. The volume of tweets alone means that what a single person is saying probably won’t ever reach your eyeballs. Why should I bother?

In the same vein, why do you really want to follow me on Facebook? Is it because you actually care about the content I’m creating? If you aren’t really interested in what I’m saying, then why exactly do you want to be my friend? I promise you there aren’t any prizes. Leave the popularity contest in high school where it belongs.

I choose to be social on my own terms. I want ‘social’ to not just refer to a type of technology, but to its true purpose. I don’t want to be part of the deathly silent user-generated content abyss that consumes most of what we produce. I listen and I’m hoping that listening is contagious.

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*I felt a tad guilty making the ‘people following 10k+’ generalization because there are some who seem to quite skillfully and responsively manage twitter streams of 10,000+. However, when someone adds me and I see they’re following that many folks, I look at the profile. Specifically, I look at whether the person is conversing or just spouting/talking to and/or about themselves. If they pass the Twitter-profile-at-a-glance test, I’ll follow them back. I do apply the unfollow button quite liberally, however.

For two examples of people who certainly seem to successfully manage their 10k+ following habit (courtesy of the recency effect), see @AmberCadabra & @ginidietrich.

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August 19th, 2010

Conferences, curry, and chocolate cake

After two weekends of conferences in a row, life is starting to settle down a bit. We didn’t actually get back until Monday morning. My suitcase is still partially packed and laundry needs done, but life is mostly restored to a relatively comfortable pace.

I had delicious chicken curry and kothe (essentially a very yummy fried dumpling) for dinner from Highland Cafe and Bakery (oddly enough, neither appear on their menu online). The suitcase and laundry will be handled. I will teach the cat how to do housework, never fear. He’ll eventually pull his weight. It’s just that right now he’s napping and cannot be disturbed.

Speaking of cats, lolcats specifically, Matt and I drove to Chicago last weekend for Social DevCamp Chicago. After my amazing She’s Geeky experience, both professionally and personally, I had extremely high hopes for the weekend.

In some ways, my expectations were met. The keynotes were amazing – Chris Messina (Google) on pop computing, being a webinist, and the ‘death’ of the web; Andrew Mason (Groupon) on product development and humility; and Ben Huh (Cheezburger Network) on success, agility, and Potato Head Development (interchangeable pieces such that if one things break, no one dies). Several of the other sessions were equally excellent and left me with plenty food for thought and useful takeaways.

What the conference lacked was exactly where She’s Geeky excelled. Social DevCamp was more of a traditional conference complete with the anonymity of being in a large group, Teacher at blackboardminimal personal interaction, and a didactic style. It wasn’t about learning from each other; it was about learning from an “expert.”

The conference certainly didn’t lack in experts and many of the presenters were certainly more than worth the price of admission, but as I learned at She’s Geeky, there’s something special about learning from each other in a group where everyone is on equal footing. It builds confidence, knowledge, and camaraderie in a way that doesn’t happen in a speaker/audience session.

With that said, I am glad I went. The keynotes were intellectually stimulating and inspiring. Chris really made me think about how I learned about the internet and honestly, how I learned to build websites. We are not the only ones who got started with html using View Source. With so many layers, proprietary parts, and other complexities, you just can’t learn that way anymore. The web has been “dumbed down” to be simple and easily accessible, but in doing so, it’s no longer, well, accessible (e.g. view source in Chrome now appears under Developer Tools instead of under View). It’s a tricky balance. It used to be that not everyone even had access to the web, but now, nearly everyone can be on the web, but could they learn how to build their own site, understand how the web works, and really become part of the group building new, important content if their access is solely through couch computing – apps, iPads, Kindles, etc?

Chris is passionate about keeping the web open to everyone and, somewhat jokingly, calls himself as a ‘webinist’ – a web activist. I like it. I think he should start a movement.

Andrew was funny, humble, and smart. He talked about not sitting on your laurels and really building for and talking to your users, not just marketers or developers. Perhaps most poignantly, he talked about how small victories have a much greater impact on team happiness than one big win – lots of small releases vs. one really big one.

Ben was brilliant and absolutely hilarious. His lolcat and Fail-peppered talk was smart and funny. Rather than just grinning at funny kittys, graphs, and human stupidity, it made me look at their network of sites as a viable, profitable, smart business venture. The business model and execution are just plain impressive – less than $2,000 and 2 hours to put up an entirely new site. Eighty percent of the sites they put up are profitable.

All in all, the weekend was good and definitely an enjoyable learning experience. The drive to and from Chicago was long – particularly since the drive home extended itself by nearly 3 hours thanks to Chicago traffic. Would I do it again? Yes, but I’d also take off the following Monday.

Cannibul Cake eyes next victumAnd now, I’m going to go have a few bites of the delicious chocolate cake that made its way home with me. Either that or I’ll save it to eat with my tasty leftovers tomorrow for lunch. I haven’t decided yet.

p.s. If you’re interested, several of the slide decks from Social DevCamp Chicago are available here on SlideShare.

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August 12th, 2010

It's raining conferences!

After a great She’s Geeky conference last week, I’m headed off to Chicago for Social devcamp Chicago tomorrow and dragging the husband with me. It was an easy sell given that Ben Huh lolcat(of Cheezburger Network fame) is one of the featured speakers. I mean, who doesn’t love a good lolcat? Am I right? They’re great for all occasions!

Capping off the week’s conference-related activites, the SxSWi PanelPicker went live this week, including my proposal for the health track, “Healthy Privacy: Can Health Insurance Companies Be Social?” In your copious spare time, please stop by and vote! There are a number of great sessions for the new track. There’s also a nice list of some of the best ones over at free range communications. If you’re at all interested in the intersection of tech and health, give them a look see and cast your vote! (Also, while you’re hanging out at the PanelPicker, don’t forget to veer outside of health to vote for Cultivating a User-Centered Culture from the Geek Girl’s Guide gang. Please and thank you).

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