I haven’t spent a lot of time in LinkedIn lately (finally updated some info today), but some changes LinkedIn released over the past couple of weeks caught my attention.  First, LinkedIn now allows your Twitter status updates to appear in the LinkedIn status.  This is part of a LinkedIn-Twitter agreement.  Twitter’s co-founder, Biz Stone and LinkedIn’s co-founder, Reid Hoffman discuss the value of the integration in this video, which also shows how you can activate the integration:

I’d highly recommend checking the box, “share only tweets that contain #in” (note, they’ve also added the hashtag #li since this video was made).  This is similar to the Selective Twitter Status within Facebook (which I use when I’m in the Twitter web app or other app that doesn’t allow sychning of Twitter status with Facebook).  Unlike Facebook, however, your audience within LinkedIn is primarily a professional audience, and more than likely won’t appreciate seeing all your Twitter updates, especially if you’ve got the weekly email updates turned on, which will show a compiled list of all your updates.  If you turn on the “#li” capability, only the updates within Twitter given the hastag #li will appear within LinkeIn, thus allowing you to control what status updates will appear.  This works best for me since I’d prefer just to send only professional networking/work-related updates to LinkedIn and can do so by using #li within Twitter for those updates.  Certainly, there’s the school of thought advocating all updates from Twitter going to LinkedIn– the question really comes down to what you’re more comfortable with.  Over time, I may change my preference on this, but for now I’d rather start off selectively Twittering to LinkedIn.

As a side note, you may want to check out Ping.fm, which allows you to update all of your social media status’ (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Brightkite, Yammer, etc.) all at once or just selected ones.  (I used to use Hello Txt but have found Ping.fm have wider coverage and to be a bit more user-friendly, especially on the iPhone web browser).

LinkedIn also re-did their user-interface.  Apparently, this hasn’t gone out to the general public yet according to the LinkedIn blog post (I’m not sure why I got the update and other did not), so I included a screenshot below so you could see it.

New UI for LinkedIn

The biggest change is in the navigation, which has moved from the left to the top.  Overall, I like it compared to the old UI, as it gives it a much cleaner look.  It also gives much deeper levels of navigation to sub-categories of the main category items, which was limited in the old UI.

Another area where there was a noticeable change is in your Profile (see below).  The side navigation is gone (again, at the top), which helps make it appear cleaner.  The biggest change, however, is more info in your profile appearing above the fold, which is important when someone is cruising your profile.

LinkedIn profile UI changes

Finally, another update worth looking at in LinkedIn (okay, it’s not that new, but it did happen within the past few months, but didn’t get a lot of publicity), is the LinkedIn-Slideshare synch.  I’m a big fan of SlideShare, especially for my job, where I’m doing a lot of presentations that I like to share, which I share on SlideShare.  It makes a ton of sense to synch those to LinkedIn, especially since the presentations are mainly professional content– content pefect for my professional network on LinkedIn.   It’s easy to install the synch while in LinkedIn (you have to have a SlideShare account obviously, which the synch will prompt you to create if you don’t have one already.  If you don’t have a SlideShare account, I’d highly recommend adding content before you synch or turn off the utility until you do– you want content to actually appear in your LinkedIn profile and not have anything appear).  Once installed, I’d recommend having the SlideShare utility (which will display your latest three SlideShare presentations), display on your profile page (displaying on your home page is a personal preference), which will allow anyone who views your profile to see your content and increasing your “value-add” to your network.  One major downside of LinkedIn (which hopefully they’ll be addressing soon), is that you don’t have control over where the SlideShare utility (or any other) will appear on your profile.  It could end up buried deep in your profile, requiring the user to scroll.  Ideally, you could determine where the utility would appear– SlideShare clearly is one you’d want to show up prominently.

There are definitely other utilities I’d recommend having in your profile (WordPress, Amazon, etc.)– maybe a topic for a future post?…In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the UI changes, Twitter-LinkedIn synch and SlideShare-LinkedIn synch.

On September 30, 2009 I had the opportunity to speak at InfoTrend’s Office Document Strategy (ODS) Conference at the Hyatt Harborside Hotel in Boston, MA.  I was invited to speak by @annevelaitis at Infotrends and was asked to speak on the topic of “Emerging Technologies”.   Given the audience and the evolving need to understand the role of social media and community in the enterprise I choose to outline a strategy for utilizing social media and community in the enterprise.  I entitled the session “A Roadmap for Success with Social Media & Community for Business”.   I’ve included my slides below:

I outlined four steps for achieving a successful social strategy for the enterprise, as well as outlined some practical, actionable things folks in the audience could do to get going.  I wanted to do the latter because I wanted more than anything else for my presentation to be actionable, and something that folks felt that they could start moving forward with (based on the audience feedback, I think this was the case).  I won’t recap the presentation here, but there are the four steps I outlined for a successful social strategy for the enterprise:

• Build a strategy- This is the most difficult part for most organizations, but also the most critical.  Everything else flows from the strategy.  Four basic questions should be addressed:  1) What are your goals? (Think of this in terms of what business problems you are trying to solve– is it better market research, improved product innovation, better customer support, or another goal?).  A good place to start is making sure these goals are aligned with overall corporate strategy and goals.  2) What are the roles that you need to have (or what will your social media team look like)?  I covered this in some detail in my previous post on the need for a social media galvanizer.  Having clear ownership and the right skill set is key.  Lack of ownership is major reasons most social strategies fail.   3) What are the polices and procedures you need to have in place?  Social technologies can have quite a disruptive effect within the organization– both good and bad, and it’s important to have policies and procedures in place so all those who participate understand what is appropriate social behavior and what is not.  This may seem obvious, but the behavior we use before sending an email is not the same we’d use in sending a tweet for instance.  4) How do you go about attracting followers and building membership?  Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as just ‘building it and they will come’– you need to think about who the target audience is,what competition you have out there in attracting them and what strategies you will use in attracting your target audience.

• Map your strategy to social media applications and technology. There is myriad of technology out there to choose from– blogs, forums, Q&A apps, tagging, recr strategy to social media applications & technology, recognition & rewards, Twitter, Facebook, wikis, chat, online video– just to name a few– but how to you know which to utilize?  The type of technology and applications you use will depend upon the type of community you want to set up and the profile of the members within the community (what type of apps do they prefer?).  Mapping out the capabilities you’re looking for, then figuring out how you will make it a reality is a very involved process (vendor selection, integration, on-going maintenance, etc.).  You will also want to think about whether you want to build it yourself or use a vendor-offered solution (or open source).

• Develop a community management  plan- A solid community management plan will determine the ultimate success of your social strategy.  Community management will help drive adoption and sustain it in the long run.   Poor community management– not technology– is perhaps the #1 reason why companies fail with social media and community.  There are three main things to think about in developing a community management plan: 1) the role of the community manager- this person will be the day-to-day driver of the community.  Among other things, he or she will engage, empower and respond to members, including mediating issues, and serve as the overall leader for the community.  This is an emerging role for organizations and lots is written on the topic.  Mashable does a good job outlining the 5 Essential Traits of  a Community Manager and Angela Connor provides a practitioner’s view.  2)  content programming & engagement- Content drives conversation, which is what social media and community is all about.  Having solid, well-thought out content that engages is paramount.  It is also extremely difficult.  You’ll need to think about who will write the content, how they will package it and when it will be delivered.  The community manager is someone who can help drive the content programming.  3) Moderation plan- You need to think about whether you will want to moderate the community or not.  If you do decide to moderate, what type of moderation would you pursue– pre-moderation, post-moderation, reactive moderation or distributed moderation?  Finally, who will play the role of moderator– will it be someone internal, external/outsourced or a combination thereof?  Will it be the same person as the community manager?

• Measure & optimize- Having clear metrics for success and being able to measure it so that you can understand the effectiveness of your efforts and adjust accordingly is key.  There’s a lot being written & discussed on this topic today.  Maddie Grant captures some of what’s been written in her post 6 Must Read Posts About the ROI of Social Media.  Two things to keep in mind about measuring & optimizing: 1) there are lots of vendors out there that can help automate the process, so avoid doing it manually.  2) include the social media and community metrics as part of your overall marketing metrics and means of measuring corporate strategy efforts.  Most organizations today have core measurements they use to measure marketing effectiveness– social media and community should be viewed as part of this, as well as tied back to the overall corporate objectives.

Certainly, we could have spent hours on any of the above steps (not to mention the practical recommendations for getting started), but I think the value I (hopefully) helped provide was a jump-start for those in the audience who were looking to get going with a social strategy in their organization.

Thanks again for ODS for the opportunity.

For the past several months, I’ve had the privilege of consulting with Sun Microsystems on the Social Learning eXchange (SLX), which I helped  launch to market with the rest of the SLX team back in June 2009.     It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career for a number of reasons:  the great team (first and foremost), social media and social learning focus of the product, the entrepreneurial spirit of the whole venture and opportunity to start something exciting and new (which fits my personality quite nicely for those who know me), and finally, on a more granular personal level, the fantastic opportunity to refine my marketing skills, particularly around web marketing, social media, inbound marketing, and overall go-to-market planning.

There are so many people I’ve enjoyed working with on SLX:  the team at Sun Microsystems (more on them below), the team at PR 20/20 ( @paulroetzer, @keithmoehring), New Media Campaigns (@newmediaclay ), Hubspot ( @ddonlan), and all the press, bloggers, and analysts I’ve worked with who cover social media, social learning, collaboration and online video.  I’ll look forward to continued these relationships in the future.

As I move onto another opportunity, I wanted to reflect a bit on my experience with SLX and why I think it has a bright future:

• The SLX team- If there is one thing that I’ve learned in my 13+ years working (especially in high tech), it’s the importance of working with good people.   Nothing is more important than working with a team that is smart, hard-working, and trustworthy.  This describes the SLX team to a tee.  Charles Beckham, the CTO of Sun Learning Services and the prime-mover behind SLX, is one of the smartest, most innovative people I’ve worked with and clearly understands how to create and sustain a business.  The folks he’s assembled on the SLX team are also top-notch:  Brynna Donn, who handles the product strategy is someone to be reckoned with.  This is the second time I’ve had the chance to work with Brynna, and have come to appreciate even more the leadership and grit she brings to the table.   Paul Casanova is someone else on the SLX team I’ve been impressed with– he was the chief advocate and evangelist for SLX and understands the practical use of the product to build community– not something that many folks can do.  The rest of the team– Mike De Loia, Jan Hendrik Mangold, the whole contingent of developers in Russia, have a strong understanding of how to build a quality product.  Without a doubt, the people are the greatest asset behind SLX and one of the reasons why it will flourish.

• The product offering- SLX fills a unique gap in the marketplace:  providing a rich media platform for the business enterprise.  Yes, there are lots of online video products out there for businesses, but most focus on marketing to consumers or creating a web property that serves as a ‘content exchange’ or consumer sharing site (many of which do not have a viable business model).  Few provide a solution specifically targeted for within the organization– helping large and smaller business alike to connect employees, partners, and customers to solve internal problems associated with more effective social learning, marketing communication, and more productive collaboration.  There’s truly a gap in the marketplace for such a solution, and SLX provides a fantastic solution to fill this gap. One of the best things about SLX is that is is PROVEN.  (It has also one numerous awards for excellence among industry experts, particularly within social learning circles).  Sun Microsystems used it (and continues to use it) internally for large scale use:  thousands of users worldwide, who have viewed and downloaded thousands of pieces of content, including through mobile devices.  The challenges Sun has solved with SLX are the same challenges that every enterprise faces:  helping sales people get the information they need to close deals, on-boarding new employees and training existing ones, assisting leadership in communicating with employees and partners, and helping marketing organizations delivery consistent and farther-reaching messaging and product information.

• The market opportunity- The social media, and in particular, the online video part of the market continues to grow and shows no signs of slowing down.  It’s not just in the world of consumer video:  The exciting part is that most businesses haven’t figured out quite yet how to effectively use online video as part of their internal operations.  This translates into massive opportunity for a product like SLX.  As video technology becomes increasingly easier to use and more integrated into how people collaborate and communicate, the opportunity will only continue to grow.  SLX will be ready to tap this growth as well as play a lead role in making it a reality.

While the opportunity for SLX is certainly a large one, it won’t be an easy path to navigate (it never is)– there will be questions around how it will fit in as part of Oracle’s product set post-acquisition of Sun and how to best capitalize on the market opportunity ahead.  However, those are surmountable challenges.  The hard questions for SLX have already been addressed:  having a quality, competitive product that’s proven;  market validation as demonstrated by a strong pipeline of interested customers; and a strong team dedicated to making it a success.  With these foundational components in place, taking it to the next level will not be a cakewalk, but increases the likelihood of success substantially.

I’ll look forward to seeing SLX succeed wildly and will be remain it’s biggest fan.

The Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston was June 22-25, 2009, and I’m now finally getting around to digesting all that happened that week.  All in all it was a great conference with lots of activity & lots of networking.  I attended as an exhibitor with Sun, continuing the launch efforts with SLX, which is continuing to gain awareness in the market.  (You can check out our recap of the conference on the SLX  video community blog).  I’ve attended the show the past four years and from a vendor perspective, this was the quietest of those years.  It’s probably safe to say it’s due to the economy, but we also did not have prime real estate on the show floor (note to self: sign up earlier next year).  Otherwise, from a non-vendor, social software/media enthusiast perspective, I thought it was a great show.  Here are some of my thoughts & some highlights:

• The concept of Enterprise 2.0 is evolving- When I first attended Enterprise 2.0 a few years ago, there was a tremendous amount of excitement, as the newness of what it all meant was still in the forefront.  I remember the exuberant feeling of “the sky is the limit”.  A few years later, the feeling is still there, but not quite as strong.  I’d attribute this to an evolving understanding of how the technologies fit into the enterprise & a continued exploration of how it all drives real business value.  The sense I got among attendees was that they “get” the technology, but their challenge is how to drive adoption.  One of the key challenges is driving adoption in tandem with already-adopted and well-established technologies, such as email.     One of the better sessions I attended was “Strategies for Building Sustainable Online Communities” hosted by Oliver Marks with panelists Phil Karren from Novell, David Wormald from OpenText and Ted Hopton from UBM.   Ted is a community manager at UBM, and has led the effort to establish a community for employees of the company to network & improve knowledge exchange.  “You never meet anyone in your inbox,” he stated, when referring to how to position the value of Enterprise 2.0 technologies next to email.  Phil Karren from Novell also underscored the importance of “reducing unnecessary tooling” and giving “lots of hand-holding” to help drive adoption.  The big takeaway from this session & from the conference overall is the importance of pro-active community management & the importance of drawing upon the lessons of what has worked and hasn’t worked in other organizations– clearly an evolution from a few years ago when the focus was mainly on ‘the tools’.

• The unique needs of the enterprise are still not at the forefront- While there was a lot of great discussion on social technologies in the enterprise for business collaboration, one of the things that struck me at the conference, was how little discussion there was around how social technologies are addressing the unique requirements of the enterprise, which are different from the more consumer-oriented web, namely security, reliability, compliance, etc..  In order for social technologies to take off in the enterprise, these issues need to be integrated as part of the core discussion.

• Does collaboration, unified communications, community and social media all mean the same thing? The terms collaboration, unified communications (UC), community and social media were used interchangeably, but I’d argue that they don’t have the same meaning.  In particular, community and the use of social media by the enterprise is distinct from collaboration and unified communications.  Collaboration and UC focus on the workflow and business processes of the “knowledge worker” while community and social media focus on the relationships those same workers have with other employees, partners, and customers.  This could warrant a whole separate discussion (blog post for the future?), but it’s worth pointing out the difference since Enterprise 2.0 is a varied & diverse area, and often one ripe for confusion unless you are clear in the terms being used.

• Web & community monitoring & ROI is hot, hot, hot-  Practically everyone had on their mind how to best measure & quantify investments being made in Enterprise 2.0.  Clearly, this is an evolving area (there is ton being written on this topic), and that could be seen at the conference.  Most of the content at the show focused on measuring consumer-oriented ‘web 2.0′ interaction, and less so on internal, employee/partner  ‘Enterprise 2.0′  interaction.   It would have been good to see more on the latter, given the focus of the conference.  Nonetheless, much of the ‘Web 2.0′ monitoring & ROI sessions had cross-applicable lessons to the enterprise.  I attended a great session by Alistair Croll of Bitcurrent on “Complete Web Monitoring” (check out his and Sean Power’s book by the same name), which focused on web monitoring.  The session mainly focused on the needs to monitor & measure your brand & the needs of the marketer, while relaying concepts of measuring interaction & activity within a community.  Another event hit on the same chord (although unrelated to any official Enterprise 2.0 events), which was the “Rockstars of Social CRM” hosted by Chris Brogan and Radian6.  The event (in addition to being a good time to share drink & some good food with others) explored the new way of cultivating relationships with customers (rather than a focus on tools), and real experiences rather than quick, transactional sales.  In addition to a great panel discussion, Radian6 presented the practical side of the equation, demonstrating their new integration with Salesforce.com & plans for other CRM integrations, which help to measure & quantify Enterprise 2.0 interaction with customers.

• The uptick of microblogging/Twitter’s place in the enterprise. To no surprise, lots of interest was focused on microblogging (especially Twitter) and it’s place in the enterprise.  It’s really taken off the past year, and can be seen by the large number of vendors offering “Twitter for the Enterprise” solutions (see Yammer, Brainpark, Socialtext).  While I think most individuals in the enterprise understand the value of microblogging (crowdsourcing, info sharing, intercommunication, etc.), it’s still not well-understood in the enterprise.  Realistically, for microblogging to gain traction in the enterprise, it will need to address the security concerns most organizations have, as well as be integrated as part of a larger community solution, including being part of the overall plan for community management and adoption.

I met some great people at the show who came from a variety of backgrounds– vendors, bloggers, analysts, media, community managers, social media strategists, among others.  The conversations are always the biggest value from any show.  Some of the folks I met and reconnected with and would recommend following:

• Claire Flanagan- @cflanagan- provided great insight to what was happening at the show- doing great work at CSC community
• Amit Kulkarni- @akulkarni- E20 entrprenuer and launch pad finalist with Manymoon- very interesting product
• Jordan Frank- @jordanfrank- VP of Marketing at Traction Software- a friend & former partner from a past job- it was great to catch up with how they’ve evolved their product
• Chris Newton- @cdnewt- CTO & Co-Founder of Radian6- doing some impressive things at Radian6- will be interesting to see how they evolve
• Alistair Croll- @acroll- of Bitcurrent- insightful knowledge on web monitoring- (see above)

Others included @mwalsh, @paulroetzer, @marciamarcia, @dionhincliffe, @johncass,@stoweboyd, @olivermarks,@laurelatoreilly,@ddonlan,@roguru,@geophreyg,@guillaumecohen,@jhurwitz,@billtrippe, @pbrannigan, and of course, so many more –  just too many to document!

It was also great to meet everyone at the Sun-Veodia Tweetup at City Bar on Tuesday night-- thanks to all who attended.  Drop me a line if I haven’t connected with you already.

Until the next one…..

I had an opportunity to reconnect this past week with my ‘roots’ in the learning space this week at the ASTD International Conference and Expo in Washington, DC.  It’s been a bit since I went to an event solely focused on learning (as opposed to social technologies/web 2.0/social media), and I was a bit surprised that the same conversations we were having four years ago about the impact of social technologies in the learning function are still going on today.  I shared some thoughts on this topic on the Video Community Blog.

There still is a good amount of innovation happening in the space, which is exciting to see.  A few of the highlights include:

• Open source is making strides into enterprise learning-  Open source technology has always been embraced by people in the learning function, mainly in the academic world.  That’s why I wasn’t suprised to see Remote Learner, a learning services company and Moodle partner, at ASTD, which is an event mainly geared at coporate customers.  Moodle is an open-source Course Management System (CMS), which has historically had it’s roots and main adoption in the academic world.  Remote Learner recently developed an extension for corporate customers on top of the Moodle platform called the Enterprise Learning Intelligence Suite for Moodle (ELIS).  This is an interesting direction since traditionally the vendors who commercialized open source offerings for the academic world have not attempted to take on established vendors focused on corporate customers.  I think it’s a great move by Remote Learner, as many LMS vendors increasingly are struggling with differentiation and ELIS may be a great alternative since it provides them with the core functionality needed for formal learning (without all the unneccessary extras) while being adept and flexible enough to incorporate greater social learning components.  Here is a clip of Bryan Williams, CEO of Remote Learner, and Justin Williams, Remote Learner’s west coast Account Executive, talking about their work at Remote Learner and Moodle:

• Multimedia content authoring– especially video– remains hot. It was clear that multimedia content authoring remains very hot given the number of vendors present offering solutions at the event.  Video, in particular, has become more pervasive in the tools, especially the ability to edit and create ‘mash ups’ (pulling together different content into one one file).  An example was from Vidizmo.com, a vendor who provides an authoring tool designed for video interaction.  Adeel Khan, VP of Sales at Vidizmo.com, explains what the company does:

Most of these tools stopped short of creating a true “YouTube-like” community in the enterprise, often feeding the LMS as the repository of content and front end for interaction.  Most LMSs, however, lack the ability to create true social, web 2.0 communities to take advantage of the richness of the multimedia content.  Solutions like Sun Microsystem’s Social Learning eXchange (SLX) provide a better alternative, helping to optimize video content into a true community for social learning, as well as workplace collaboration (as a disclaimer, Sun is one of my clients who I was helping to support at ASTD).

• Uptrending use of Twitter in creative ways- While the use of Twitter at the event as a whole was incredibly low (someone tweeted that only “100 of 5000″ participants were tweeting– not sure where the number came from, but perhaps from those tweeting under the ASTD hashtags), there was definitely a large interest in microblogging.  One company, DigitalChalk, offered perhaps the most creative use of Twitter at the show by conducting a contest whereby anyone who came by their booth received a t-shirt that had a clue on the back.  The person would wear the t-shirt and then would look for other participants with similar t-shirts and clues.  The first person to tweet the complete the phrase that the three keywords clues formed won a $100 gift card. (See the complete rules posted by DigitalChalk).  The results were greater booth traffic for DigitalChalk and a “buzz” in the air about the company at the event.  Josh Quigley, Solutions Consultant at Digital Chalk explains:

Be sure to follow Josh on Twitter @joshuaquigley and DigitalChalk VP of Sales & Marketing, Tony McCune, @tonymccune.

Certainly there were a number of other innovations at ASTD as well as in the learning circles in general, that I am not accounting for.  Please do share your thoughts & comments on ones that I may have missed.

There’s no doubt that social media has had a major impact on how organizations conduct business.   I’ve spoken to a few different organizations lately who have recognized the need to “do something” about social media, but haven’t quite figured out organizationally how to tackle it.   The big question they grapple with (besides how should they approach it) is does it make sense to have  someone as the company’s social media “point person”?

My answer is yes– you should have someone in the company whose job is to think strategically about social media, but realistically, social media should be part of everyone’s job, not that of one person and the need for a “point person” on social media should viewed as a temporary one– one focused on galvanizing the rest of the organization– from hiring people with a ’social mindset’ to understanding how to write with SEO in mind, to utilizing social technologies effectively.   

Incorporating social media part of how the organization does business should not be the sole responsibility of one person in the organization or that of one department (typically marketing), but rather all of the individual’s who work for or with that organization.   As stated by the folks at Hubspot (see “NY Times Misfires By Hiring Social Media Editor“) and Chris Brogan (“Getting Back to Your Desk“), social media is a set of tools and tactics that should be used as part of everyone’s job.  At the same time, however, I do think it’s important that someone serve as the social media ‘galvanizer’ or strategist for the organization  because many organizations are trying to figure out how to make sense of the ever changing landscape and need someone to help them navigate.  At the same time, however,  the role of the social media galvanizer should be viewed as a temporary one; one in which will disappear over time.  As social media technology matures and enterprises integrate it into ever aspect of the business, the need for the social media galvanizer will dissipate and simultaneously become incorporated into how everyone conducts their job.

A few key things to keep in mind in identifying the social media galvanizer or strategist:

• Define the role appropriately and find the right skill set- The social media galvanizer for the company should be someone who can think strategically, interact with senior-level staff, present confidently, understands social technology and the market, understands the needs of your customers and your business, and makes social software part of his/her professional and personal life.  There is a difference between the social media galvanizer or strategist and a community manager– this is something I see many organizations confusing.  The community manager is the person who manages the community at a tactical level– from content programming, to responding to questions, and other responsibilities.  This is a fundamentally different role than the social media strategist.  You shouldn’t hire a community manager to do the social media strategist’s role or vice versa.  Jeremiah Owyang does a great job breaking down the difference between the two roles and the skill sets required for each in his blog post How to Staff for Social Computing.

• Empower the person for success-  Ensure that the social media strategist is at a high level in the organization and empowered to galvanize the whole company around social media.  This includes incoporating it as part of the company’s corporate strategy & culture, and defining strategy, tactics and best practices for social media (use of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other pervasive social media technologies) and community (customer, partner or employee persistent communities either on the external website for marketing or internal use for collaboration).   Separating social media and community strategy can be done, but would be very challenging and increase the risk of a disjointed approach to the company’s overall social strategy.

• Don’t outsource the role-  Social media is too strategic and critical to a business’ success to outsource to a consultant or agency.  Don’t get me wrong– I think hiring a consultant or agency is fantastic, especially to help you figure out how to define your strategy, assess how you are doing periodically, and deliver certain components of your strategy over time (such as moderation).  However, it should not be the long-term strategy.  You want the expertise of how to effectively define, execute and measure business goals with social media which is at the heart of how you conduct conversations with your customers, to be a core competency of your organization, and not one owned by an outside party.   More importantly, you want to make sure it becomes a part of everyone’s job and how your organization does business, as discussed above.

There are a lot of great resources on this topic, a few of which I’ve highlighted above.  Here are a couple more:

• Staffing Strategies for Social Media Marketing- Bernie Borges
• Social Media Strategy: Hire, Outsoure or DIY? – Soshable.com

Recently I’ve been giving a lot of thought to social media and the impact it is having upon society and what it means in the lives of individuals. There’s no doubt that social media and the new “web 2.0″ technologies have transformed how we communicate and share information, but there’s also no doubt that it has not become the cureall for all of our problems and face-to-face communication remains and always will be the foundation of social interaction.

One of the phenomenon that I’ve noticed on the rise recently is the level of elitism associated with people who embrace social media. What I mean by this is the tendency for those who are users and passionate about social media to look at the people who do not as perhaps, let’s say, a little less “in the know”. I call this “social media elitism”. Social media elitism is when you think blogging, Twittering, commenting on Facebook, producing viral videos (or at least knowing how to view them) or being fluent in other social technologies is superior to not being fluent in these technologies, and most importantly (and perhaps most objectionable), that those who don’t utilize the social technologies as unable or not capable of how to participate in the conversation. Much of this phenomenon is fed by the frenzy around social media and the need for people to consider themselves a ‘guru’ or an ‘expert’ to help create a name for themselves in the rapidly evolving space and in the process creating a gap between those who “know” and those who do not. Don’t get me wrong, I think most ‘gurus’ aren’t doing this knowingly, but rather unknowingly, and are ultimately well-intentioned. It’s just a matter of taking a step back and doing a reality check back to what makes for true social interaction.

One example where social media elitism is manifesting itself is in the perceived role of social media in government. I had the opportunity to attend the Social Media Club of Boston’s event the other day called Change.gov, which was a discussion around the role of social media in government. The panel was a cross-section of those involved in state (Massachusetts) state government, including a state representative. The audience was full of social media passionistas, and was a lively debate. One of the key questions that rose up above all else was that can government be considered effective if it is not utilizing technology– specifically social technologies– as part of the way it governs? The consensus seemed to be “no”, with a criticism of government not making data 100% fully available online, officials not reading and responding to blogs, etc.. In fact, I think government, like individuals can be effective in governing or communicating while not using social technologies. Social technologies are just a means of inserting conversation into other people’s lives and arming people with information they would need to push for change or interact with others. It’s not the sole means. Good, ‘ol fashioned face to face interaction is the foundation of participation and social interaction– whether you government or an individual. If you are a politician, nothing replaces spending face time with your constituents. If you are an individual, nothing replaces face time with other individuals.

Every single one of us know someone who does not utilize social technology– and indeed, any technology– in their life on an everyday basis. Heck, sometimes I’m even one of those people. I am an avid outdoor athlete and explorer, and one of my favorite things to do is to go off for a climb or hike into the mountains or on a long bike ride or swim with no social technology– no iPhone, no GPS, no nothing. In fact, I make it point every 3 or 4 years (I wish it could be more often), to take an extended trip overseas, preferably into some isolated spot in the developing world, and get to explore another culture, climb some peaks and enjoy the outdoors. The point is to get away and put myself into an environment different than what I am used to, both the natural environment and the culturally environment. When I do this, I inevitably marvel at how little (if at all) the natives of the places I visit rely on social technologies. When I visited Nepal and spent several weeks in the Himalaya, the natives I was with and visited did not use social technology at all in any aspect of their lives, but did participate regularly in village meetings, and spent quality time interacting. They had rich lives without the social technology. They changed government, without the technology. In the case of Nepal, they changed the government from a monarchy to a democracy through a grassroots effort independent of technology and relying on cultivated social bonds.

As social media continues to reach all aspects of life, be sure not to fall into the mindset of social media elitism. Continue to be passionate about the transformative power of social media and encourage its logical adoption, but don’t view others who are not users or limited users as unable or not capable to be part of the conversation. In fact, try turning off your computer, putting away your smart mobile device and go out and explore. This exploration could be in the outdoors, or it could be in the city. You’ll notice you will rely on interaction with other people and/or nature much more than you would otherwise. Ironically, you’ll start to rely on the most important element of social media– the power of listening.

Recently I’ve been speaking with people who are just starting to explore social media, mainly for professional networking reasons related to career development. I’ve noticed a sense of being overwhelmed and not knowing where to begin, but also an uncertainty and trepidation of using social media, particularly around it seems too “weird” or “odd” to be sharing personal information about yourself so openly, particularly for in a business or career context. The concern mainly comes from mixing professional and personal relationships, but also just with a lack of familiarity and discomfort with the openness of social media. There’s certainly a whole discussion to be had around privacy concerns and becoming accustomed to being so open—which we’ll leave to another day—but, I thought I’d focus on sharing some thoughts on how to use social media to build your network for networking purposes (including career), mainly as a primer for those who are looking to get started:

1.  Establish your goals- You should first think of what your goals are in using social media for your career. You could have many goals, but in general, I’d recommend focusing on two: 1) to remain educated on what is happening in your field and 2) to try to establish relationships with people. This second goal is for both career and personal reasons. Relationships is everything. Keep your goals simple and focused.

2.  Don’t be intimidated and evolve your participation level- Social media can be intimidating if you don’t know a lot about it, such as the names of sites, etiquette, unfamiliarity with technology, etc. That will all come in time. You’ll also run across some folks who like to pontificate or self-promote, which may rub you the wrong way. These folks are rare, but when you do come across them, just do what you’d do in the non-online world—ignore them. The point is not to let anyone or anything intimidate you, and to just jump right in. Since you’re just beginning, you’re going to want to take a gradual approach to becoming part of the conversation, and evolve over time. Start off first by listening. Listening is perhaps the most important thing you can do anytime with social media, but especially when you are just beginning. Listen to what people are talking about, which will allow you to then join in on the conversation, then finally by contributing original content. At this point, I’m going to focus on the listening and joining piece since this is a good place to get started.

3. Pick your tools- There are a myriad of different technologies and tools out there that you could utilize. It’s important to pick the ones that support your goals, but perhaps even more importantly, ones that you know that you will use. This will come with a little experimentation and experience, but in general, the ones you should focus in on to get started are:

• RSS Reader- An RSS Reader is a great way to organize content that you are interested in, and a fast and easy way to stay on top of what is happening in your field. There are lots of RSS readers on the market, but the one that I prefer and recommend is Google Reader. Not only is the interface really beautiful (comparatively speaking), it’s easy to use and manage. A good strategy is to subscribe to 5-10 blogs or news sources that interest you, and start off your day perusing through your subscriptions every morning (or whenever you have time). It will be easy to let your subscriptions get out of control, so be careful!
• Social Network- Joining a social network is a fantastic way to begin expanding your network of contacts. Social networking is best if it’s focused on an interest or a group of people you have a lot in common with. For instance, if you’re into cloud computing or PR, tap into a social network focused on one of those interests. There are other social networks that serve as more of a general network, or a platform from which you can interact and network. Facebook is an example of this. For career networking purposes, I’d recommend getting onto Facebook as well as LinkedIn, as primers and places to begin. There is tremendous amount of advice out there on how to utilize these tools effectively.  A great place to start is with the video LinkedIn in Plain English and Social Networking in Plain English.  You’ll also want to sharpen your profile.  Guy Kawasaki does a good job explaining how to optimize your LinkedIn profile.
• Microblogging- The most popular microblogging tool out there today is Twitter. Twitter has emerged as a fantastic way to network, mainly through tapping into and sharing information. Start off by making sure your profile is accurate, then following some people. Typically, around 50 people is a good start. Make sure they are people that you find interesting (you could always unfollow them). Once you start receiving updates, plan on joining the conversation by updating what’s on your mind, re-tweeting someone else’s tweet as well as replying or direct messaging people who have tweeted something of interest to you. Also, you should get used to the Twitter short-hand for many things. A good place for a primer is Twitter in Plain English.
• Personal portal or social aggregator- There is a massive amount of information and sites out there, and you don’t want to be spending your time logging in and out to all of them. Plan on utilizing a portal as well as a social aggregator to manage your information flow. I would recommend iGoogle or Netvibes as great portals where you can manage your social sites. iGoogle for instance, has gadgets for Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, as well as for your email, instance messaging, among others. Other social aggregators I like to use are Digsby, which I mainly use for my instant messaging and Twitter updates), and Tweetdeck (which I use to manage my Twitter stream). One of the huge benefits of the social aggregators is the ability to update your status in one place and have it propogate throughout your social networks. This makes life easier, particularly if you’re looking to remain active in multiple social networks.

There are certainly many other tools out there, but these are the basics you should focus on for getting started. As you evolve your participation level and get keen on creating video, blogging, co-creating wiki content, etc., there are lots of other options to explore. Also, I did not mention email and instance messaging since by this time most are already using both.

4. Participate and be consistent- Make social media part of your life. This will not only make it more useful and practical for you, but will also help you more quickly overcome any awkwardness (if any) you may harbor in using the tools. A good, simple way to get started in participating is to:

• Read & share articles and blog posts in your Google Reader (as mentioned above). You may want to also comment on some blog posts, or forward them off via Twitter.
• Listen. Listen to the Twitter stream from your followers, review the updates of your network in LinkedIn, and review the activity feeds of your friends in Facebook.
• Update your status regularly in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Try to update once a day to get started, starting at first with something about yourself, but then trying to share information on interesting articles or commentary that you have. Most people use Twitter to share information, and the more info you share, the more likely you will be seen as someone to pay attention to. One other thing to note: use your social aggregator to update your status to Twitter and Facebook. You should keep your status updates in LinkedIn focused on professional, job-related content only (most people there will not want to see your full activity stream)—which would justify keeping it separate from your updates you may make via your social aggregator to Facebook or Twitter.

5. Translate the online to in-person events- Try to tie off your online world with the real world. While using online media is great to establish connections, it doesn’t substitute for face-to-face networking, particularly for career purposes. Therefore, try to in-person events where your online connections may be so that you can meet them face to face and reinforce your relationship. On Twitter for instance, there are numerous ‘Tweetups’ that occur regularly, where Twitter connections get together to meet face to face for social and professional networking reasons. (For a list of Tweetups in the Boston area, visit Thomas Edward’s Tweetup Roundup.) On Facebook or LinkedIn many of the groups have social and professional functions, which is a great way for you to get out and meet people and network. Of course, there are in-person events planned outside of any of the social media tools. I have found EventBrite and Meetup.com good resources to link up with peers who share similar professional or personal interests, often which help in career networking.

There’s certainly many other facets to explore beyond what is covered here, but this hopefully will be a good primer to get you started.

Are there any things you have found helpful in getting started with social media for career networking & beyond?

Over the past several years, I have had the opportunity to work with some great companies and clients, all while diversifying my skills and knowledge. It has kept me busy. Very busy.  The busy nature of the jobs often left me with little time or desire to continue the conversation outside of work.  Instead, I would focus on other aspects of life outside of work such as family, community, athletic goals, among other things.  Don’t get me wrong: in today’s digital world, all these things blend together and the lines between them aren’t as stark as they used to be.  It’s just that I would try to reinforce those lines a bit more given how much time work absorbed from my life.

About three weeks ago I was presented with an opportunity. I was given a premature send off from my job due to cost-cutting measures and now for the first time in almost eight years, I find myself with time to re-focus.  I feel energized.  I feel alive.  While I do wonder a bit what the future holds as far as a new full-time, permanent “gig” goes and know I’ll be spending a lot time figuring that out,  I also plan on taking advantage of the fact that I have greater flexibility in my schedule.  One of the things I finally have more time to do is blog, and partake in the conversation around social media with greater vigor.  With that, I’m launching this blog, which I hope will be an adventure in social media, both for myself and for you.

A few other things I hope to do as well include:

• more reading, commenting and sharing- My Google Reader is chock full of great posts from lots of folks.  I hope to spend more time daily reading them, commenting on them, and sharing them with others.

• explore and use more new technologies- I’ve always been one to grab onto new technologies, but the one thing I haven’t done successfully is use them creatively with great frequency.  Video is a good example– got my Flip Nimo camera, now just need to use it more regularly.  I’m also using Twitter, but at the moment mainly for personal use.  I hope to explore more of the business application of Twitter and microblogging in general.  The theme of how to use personal, consumer-oriented technology for business/enterprise use is one that interests me and something I hope to explore.

• attend more events- While it’s great to partake in conversations online, nothing is better than good old-fashioned face-to-face conversations and meetings.  I plan on carving out more time to be social; in fact, I’ve already attended one of Jeff Pulver’s social media breakfast’s, a New Marketing Lab tweetup (special thanks to Colin Browning, Chris Brogan and Justin Levy), as well as a Pink Slip Party put on by Pistacio.  I’m looking forward to more (and hopefully meeting you there!)

Of course, I have to mention that I am also quite busy with my own adventure seeking outside of this blog, namely my coaching business and my other blog, Ascending Higher, which is dedicated to conversations around multisport.  I re-launched my website for Ascend Sports Conditioning right around the new year (2009), and have a strong passion for coaching athletes and participating in multisport.  While I’ll be keeping that blog seperate from this blog, you will see an intermixing of topics– it’s hard not too, when both social media and multisport are so both ingrained my personality.

With that, let the adventure begin!