Category: Uncategorized

Success Secrets of Social Media

One of the things I love most about the new social landscape is how there constantly seem to be new ways to meet and connect, and present and share our varied learnings and experiences.

Last Wednesday I was lucky enough to attend the first evening of a new event – a social media open mic night. Now I have ruminated once or twice on whether blogging is the new rock n roll – was this to be proof that social media is the new stand-up comedy?

Not quite! What I experienced was a great concept and one that enabled networking, insight and a lot of fun.

Hosted by Radian6 and Salesforce, the Social Success #micup night gave the opportunity for 5 social media practitioners to each take the microphone for 5 minutes to share their social media success secret – with precious few slides and a clock counting down the 5 minutes behind them.

The fearless five were not chosen at random, but had been crowd sourced through Twitter, so their presence on the stage was not a surprise, and this led to a relaxed and engaging session. More storytelling amongst friends than a full presentation…though the crowd were ready and willing to heckle!

One presenter – Doug Kessler – has already summed up the five presentations in this excellent blog…I recommend you read it. I’ll just give you my take on the 5 Success Secrets:

  • Serendipity…you never know where a single random tweet will lead. In the case of Gabrielle Peters it led to NASA, the Mars Mission and a meeting with Will.i.am.
  • Agape…unconditional love is the key to community building. And great content needs to inform, inspire, educate or entertain – and preferably all 4!
  • It isn’t all about the big networks and big communities…a platform like Path can help you build tiny groups of like-minded people
  • Be social and engage creatively…it isn’t about shoving your message down your audience’s throats if you are a big brand
  • Be unique and stick to your beliefs…it’s crowded and you don’t get much airtime so make sure you stand out and don’t lose faith if at first it doesn’t work

The evening moved on to drinks and chat, and quite a relaxed networking vibe.

The social success micup was a huge success…there’s another one planned for November and I recommend you sign up when as soon as its announced.

Not quite rock n roll, nor stand-up comedy…more of a fun cocktail bar and lounge evening, with new friends and interesting discussions.

Digital Ownership vs Physical Ownership

The recent discovery that Amazon now sell more eBooks than physical books led me to wonder whether we are creating a digital library of unread books.

Downloading is easy, be it books or music. It’s one, maybe two clicks and they’re yours. Rarely have you taken days or weeks of researching, of visiting a shop and browsing through the shelves and options. It is quite often an impulse decision – at least three in my Twitter network (including me) downloaded a couple of Black Keys albums this weekend as we watched them live on BBCs Reading Festival coverage.

Hey, they sound good; I don’t have any of their stuff.

Someone recommends a book or a song and we download it. C’mon don’t say you haven’t done it!

But do we relate to these in the same way? Has the digital availability of cultural artefacts led to an ownership vs consumption conundrum? Or does the ubiquity of the hardware/software – eg a kindle, a kindle app on the iPhone and on the iPad – mean that we now have so many ways of consuming what we have bought that we consume even more than before?

But if we think – ‘yes, I’ll get that’ – and then click, click, we have it…do we feel the same way? Have we invested enough of ourselves in that acquisition? And how many times do we buy more than we would if the purchase was of the physical copies.

There’s nothing to beat the feel of a book, the smell of a book, holding it and flicking through the pages. If you’re not reading it you can hear the book shouting at you…read me. READ ME!

Music is a bit different – the shift from vinyl to CD clearly signalled a change in the relationship between album and owner – yet even now some are feeling nostalgic towards the CD.

In the early days of iPod most of the conversation was around what songs and albums you should have…rarely did the conversation seem centred on what to listen to. Similarly with the Kindle I hear many talk about what books they should have, or need to get.

I appreciate that some of this is purely semantics. I chatted about this with both Rob Jones and Matt Alder last week and both feel that they consume as much – possibly more – than before.

Yet I’m still not so sure. I see a definite shift in language away from consumption and towards ownership and I wonder if it is driven by the manner of acquisition.

So I’m throwing it open. Tell me if your iPods and e-Readers are cluttered with things you’ve bought but rarely listen to or read. Or do you find you consume even more?

What I Talked About at The Drive Thru

Yesterday saw my first appearance on Bryan Wempen’s Drive Thru HR blog talk radio show. It was a wide ranging conversation covering everything from the Olympics to what topics am I so over.

If you’ve got some time then you can listen to the 30 minute show through this link. If you’re a bit time deficient then here’s what I was saying in a nutshell…

Get inspired, get determined, get good

Needless to say we started with chat about the Olympics. Luckily TeamGB had bagged a couple of gold medals earlier in the afternoon so I didn’t feel pressure under the weight of US gold medals. I talked about GBs first medal winner, Lizzie Armitstead, who won a silver cycling medal aged 23. What was so special about this? Well, she didn’t learn to ride a bicycle until she was 16. Her school got a visit from British Cycling’s Talent Team and it inspired her to take it up. Novice to silver Olympian in 7 years – shows what can happen when inspiration meets determination.

Before you go looking for new platforms get as good as you can be at the one’s you’re already using

Jay Kuhns posed a question on twitter in relation to my role as a social media manager – what did I see as the next platform after the ‘holy trinity’ (Bryan’s words) of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. I talked a bit about Google+ and how useful it was. I managed a shameless plug for this blog on Jobsite Insider in which my colleague Gary Elliott talks about the value of Google+. But then I did add that there was little point in looking for a new plaything if you haven’t mastered the ones you’ve already got. Too many businesses try to jump on new bandwagons before they’ve properly navigated the one they’re already riding. Get as good as you can be at the ‘Holy Trinity’.

Make it simple for people to get involved

I talked about an initiative that I was rolling out at work to encourage colleagues who are interested in finding out more about social media networks, how they can use them and how they can get started. I’ll write more about it in a future blog but suffice to say that my belief is you need to get your people comfortable about using it for themselves before you can ask them to use it for you. If you over encourage people to use the platforms before they are comfortable then they’ll use them badly. Continue reading “What I Talked About at The Drive Thru” →

What Keeps You Up at Night?

This Wednesday I’m making my debut on the excellent Drive Thru HR, a 30 minute daily blog talk radio show hosted by Bryan Wempen and William Tincup. They talk about Human Resources with a mix of professionals, practitioners, vendors and ‘thought leaders who support HR’ – an all-encompassing mix that ensures the conversation is lively, insightful and covers a wide ground.

The topic is always ‘about HR and whatever keeps you up at night’ – a question that helps ensure each discussion is personal and subjects don’t become repetitive. I’ve been thinking over what I want to talk about and I hope that I can contribute to a chat that keeps all Bryan and William’s listeners tuned in!

If you want to tune in and hear our discussion then click on this link at 6pm UK time, 12.00 CST US time

If you want to follow on twitter then the hashtag is #dthr

Whilst thinking over what I was going to talk about it did strike me that I do lie awake thinking about stuff quite a bit. I’ve always been a fairly light sleeper, but even allowing for that I do seem to lose anything up to an hour’s sleep some nights thinking about things, some arising from that day or evening. And I notice many people in my twitter timeline also talking about having had a restless night’s sleep.

Without touching on what I’ll talk about on Drive Thru HR there seem to be three main themes that fill my head at about 4am:

  • My son (hardly surprising…currently university applications, career choice and A-Levels – am I giving the right support, guidance and insight)
  • Elderly relatives (mainly my mum plus partner’s father who is in a care home but may be coming out soon – am I doing enough to help them)
  • Things I haven’t done (a regular theme! Can be work related, bills not paid, Oyster card not re-charged or other random stuff – yes, I am disorganised!)

I remember that my dad was always a worrier and often would be awake half the night…can’t think it’s hereditary though.

Anyone else care to share? Are you awake at night thinking about things – if so what? You never know…there may be a load of us awake thinking about the same stuff.

Please tune in on Wednesday at 6pm UK time to hear me chew the fat with Bryan and William – and also tune back in next Monday (6th August) when it’s the turn of my friend Doug Shaw to guest on the show and keep the flag flying for TeamGB!

5 Challenges Organisations Have to Face Before they Evolve

Much is written and debated about the future of organisations. Many approach this by talking about organisational structures, internal communications and how we get the best out of people, but what most of the discussions about flatter, collaborative organisations tend to ignore are the many basic challenges that businesses increasingly face now, and will over the next few years, and which will either have to be dealt with before evolving or else will have to be part of the evolution, probably driving it.

The way we get business, transact and fulfil that business is changing, and no debate about the future of organisations can overlook these changes.

So here are my five challenges that will need to be solved by any future organisation that wants to embrace a vision of more open, flatter hierarchy, collaborative and self-directed strategies. It’s really a question of skills, training, space, engagement and communication.

Knowledge Drain

The recent McKinsey Global Institute Report on Work predicts that by 2020 the global economy will be short of 38-40,000,000 degree educated workers. Primarily as they leave the workforce, taking their skills and knowledge with them, this shortfall accounts for 13% of workers needed at this level. How will companies replace this knowledge and capability?

Skill Shortages – Are we Training the Next Generation Properly?

It seems not. Alarmingly the recent UK Commission for Employment & Skills report on youth employment found that in the UK 32.7% of degree educated 25-29 year olds were working in jobs below their skill levels. The US figure was 25.8% and the OECD average 22.8% (chart below). When we talk about underemployment we usually mean people not working enough hours… the concept of under-utilisation of abilities, knowledge and education is rarely discussed. Continue reading “5 Challenges Organisations Have to Face Before they Evolve” →

There’s No Riot Goin’ On

At this weekend’s Hard Rock Calling gig the headline act, Bruce Springsteen, had bought Sir Paul McCartney on stage for a gig-goers dream of an encore. Alas, the entertainment was cut short 😦  The 10.30pm curfew for the event had been breached and the police pulled the plugs. The crowd streamed home, somewhat miffed.

“It made for a slightly bizarre, anti-climactic end to what had been a fantastic show” said the BBC reporter.

Would never have happened back in the 70s!

December 1973 saw an infamous and much chronicled gig at Hammersmith Odeon (now Apollo) from Mott the Hoople (supported by an up and coming glam metal band called Queen) for which high ticket demand had led to the staging of a second show. Touring schedules being what they were then there was no alternative date, so two shows were scheduled for the same night. The second show started late – the police and venue security eventually pulling the plugs (literally) at 12.15 am precipitating a near riot…whilst the final trains of the night waited patiently at Hammersmith station for the crowd to empty out!

Would that happen now? Clearly not! (Even though the Bruce Springsteen fan demographic would indicate that there may well have been people in Hyde Park on Saturday night who had been at the Mott the Hoople gig!)

Just contrast with today’s gig going…tickets bought up to a year in advance, set lists pre-publicised, a running order on the door as you arrive – with a curfew! Hell, even Led Zeppelin in their heyday were known to come back for one last encore to satiate the demands of a few hundred fans who wouldn’t leave!

Coincidentally I’ve recently been catching up on the Dominic Sandbrook documentary series on the 70s and the BBC4 series Punk Britannia. When the latter was first aired it lit up the post Jubilee blogosphere with chat of youth anger, rebellions and the tepid conformity that many old punks see in today’s yoof. I was debating this over a few beers with FlipChartRick a few weeks ago, just after he had published a blog which in turn had been inspired by one from Chris Dillow.

Rick felt that the some of the perceived anger and rebellion was largely misty eyed nostalgia…

“Are today’s youngsters any less rebellious than we were in the late 70s and early 80s? Perhaps but, then again, I’m not altogether sure that we were really that rebellious anyway. We did a lot of things that shook people up but that’s because our easily identifiable youth tribes made it look as though we were hell-bent on a single cause. Most of the time, though, we were just doing what teenagers have always done; seeing how far we could push things without getting into serious trouble”.

Whilst Chris Dillow was in little doubt that Punk offered anger that shocked their elders…

“Punk was more rebellious and more disquieting to the establishment than anything we see today. Nobody of my generation is as appalled by dubstep as 40-somethings were by punk. It’s unlikely that a single today would be banned for political reasons and get to number one, as God Save the Queen did. And try as I might, I can’t imagine Rizzle Kicks doing to Alex Jones what the Sex Pistols did to Bill Grundy. In this, music reflects a wider social fact – that today’s young people are much less gobby than we were.”

During the ale-fuelled conversation Rick encouraged me to record my thoughts, something I haven’t got round to…but last night’s mild mannered frustration at the early concert curtailment gave me a good example of how things have changed since those romanticised 70s days. I guess I wanted to see the full Punk Britannia series first, and I think that watching them in conjunction with the 70s documentaries gave a context that the music programmes alone may not have reflected.

I could have started a blog on the difference between the mid-70s and now with a question. If you are a parent, when we you last really shocked by something that your children did, liked, watched or said?

I remember an op-ed piece by a female journalist a few years ago (can’t remember who I’m afraid) in which she accompanied her teenage daughter to a boy band concert. She was appalled. Appalled by the conformity and niceness of it all. At the same age her band were The Rolling Stones – their primeval, sexual and narcotic take on pop blues horrifying her parents…yet here she was consumed with boredom. She was shocked…but the shock was at the conformity and mawkishness of what she was seeing. Continue reading “There’s No Riot Goin’ On” →

Hello, I Love You, Won’t You Tell Me Your Klout Score

A bit of fun maybe but this one will get the Klout deniers up in arms. Not sure how I missed it a few weeks ago but there’s a US dating site – Tawkify – that now offers to match you with your perfect partner based on Klout scores.

Cool huh?!!

Love these quotes from one of the co-founders on why they use Klout integration…

“People with high Klout scores know how to listen and know how to react; they’re cute, smart and connected. It’s as powerful as someone’s height or weight.”

“We’ve found that Klout scores are an authentic measurement of sophistication, wit, cultural savvy and appeal — a much truer and more trustworthy measurement than the typical online dating site bull-hockey-factors of height, weight and income”

So there you have it – you can put your Klout score on a CV and get a job, and now it can get you a date too.

I realise that a lot of my regular readers are, shall we say, a little sceptical about Klout, and indeed the whole business of measuring influence come to that. I have previously voiced my own thoughts too.

And I can’t help but wonder what kind of first date two people with high Klout scores will have…lots of check ins, liking, tweeting and live blogging of each other’s’ jokes and opinions no doubt.

But then if an algorithm can decide that I’m cute, smart, sophisticated, witty and savvy…then hell, who am I to argue 🙂

E-mail Killed the Chat Show Star

There was an interesting article in the Wall Street journal recently – wireless carriers are getting creative in the way they charge customers for voice calls. They need to as the average length of a person to person phone call has almost halved in 6 years from 3.03 minutes to 1.78 minutes.

It reminded me of this op-ed from New York Times about 15 months ago on how people don’t talk on the phone much anymore. I’d like to think I started the trend with ‘The End of the Phone’ but it’s unlikely!

It may seem like the end of conversation, which funnily enough was at odds with a subject occupying some UK HR bloggers recently. Gareth Jones thinks that conversation is the new currency whereas Rob Jones points out that it’s the old currency, it’s been the lifeblood of organisations since well before the days of Don Draper. We’re just going back to being human, as Doug Shaw puts it.

All of which took me back to my very first job in a 150 person accountancy firm. This wasn’t the days of Mad Men (no jokes) but still if you wanted to speak to a colleague you either picked up the phone and dialled their internal extension or walked over to their desk. If a partner wanted to see you they phoned you and told you to come and see them with a specific file. Most days any number from 5 to 50 may drop by the pub for a lunchtime glass of shandy or sandwich, whilst small groups from different departments would gather in nearby cafés. A lunch break was just that! A break to get out the office and usually chat. Continue reading “E-mail Killed the Chat Show Star” →

reasons to be cHeeRful

It’s time for another Carnival of HR. If you’ve not dipped in before then you should…it’s a fortnightly collection of blogs from some of the top HR and Recruitment bloggers in the US, UK and farther afield – sometimes around a theme and other times simply a collection of the best writing of the last two weeks.

I’ve been a little remiss with my submissions lately but have been sparked into action by 6th June edition. It’s curated by a really great guy in Steve Browne – a good, and giving, friend of the UK HR community and someone whose weekly HR Net newsletters provide a regular highlight in my otherwise burgeoning e-mail inbox of money saving vouchers, LinkedIn spam messages and offers of financial gifts from East Africa.

Steve wants us to look at what’s good about HR. Most bloggers are able to pinpoint what’s wrong and what needs to change but maybe can be slower to champion what works and what makes us proud to work in the sector.

As a non-practitioner (more of a vicarious practitioner) it’s sometimes easier to take a more holistic view – which I know may infuriate those at the coalface – but things do look in fairly good shape. Sure there are those who would prefer to get back to basics, others who use strategy as a reason for overlooking the basics and many who participate in a regular kvetch fest about seats at the table and how to get taken seriously, but overall everyone I meet is passionate, committed and determined to do the best they can. In tough economic times, and with traditional employment patterns undergoing significant shifts, it’s easy to lose sight of the importance of HR in keeping employers and businesses productive, harmonious and engaged.

And there are two things about the future that really excite me the most – Social Connectivity and Sharing. Continue reading “reasons to be cHeeRful” →

Free Wifi and the Experience Economy

I’m writing and posting this blog sitting in the lobby of a holiday hotel in Ibiza. Around me are several holidaymakers similarly using smartphones, tablets, net books and laptops to share their holiday experiences, post photos and updates, check e-mails etc.

We’re all able to do this as this hotel has free wifi in its luxurious and tranquil lobby and lounge areas. This is my third holiday in a row where a traditional ‘package’ holiday hotel has offered free wifi access in public areas. You pay if you want it in your room but most prefer the congenial and social surroundings of the lounges.

At last weeks CIETT2012 conference I attended an excellent keynote from Prof Lynda Gratton and amongst many things that she said (which I will probably revisit in future blogs) was that

We are now in an experience economy where measuring money matters less to consumers than measuring experiences

And with data roaming charges being what they are it’s certainly become easier to share holiday experiences from a hotel lounge with free wifi.

Most conferences I go to now talk about the importance of storytelling, how businesses need to encourage their customers and clients to share stories and experiences – reputations defined as the stories told about you as opposed to what you say about yourself – and holiday hotels, so central to the overall holiday experience and operating in a very competitive market, need to give every encouragement to their guests to share stories. Continue reading “Free Wifi and the Experience Economy” →