Project Social: Trendy HR Trends

Dave Ryan and I were talking last week about what to post about next and I suggested HR challenges.  I made this suggestion partly out of selfish reasons – I was working on an HR trends presentation at the time and was hoping to get a ‘twofer’ out of it – and partly out of curiosity about how he would approach the topic from 'the HR trenches.'

He was all over this idea ('Hmmmn.  That could work...') so here are some cool HR trends to challenge and inspire you in 2012.  Be sure to also read what Dave has to say over at HR Official and Lyn Hoyt also weighed in at The HR Bacon Hut.

Trend #1: Globalisation (aka 'If You Spell it With a Z You're Not Global') – Even if your company isn’t technically global, the global economy impacts you.  Not only can people all over the world consume your products, companies all over the world may be competing for your market share.  If you are a global company with multiple HR systems around the world, your main challenges are probably inconsistent processes and insufficient workforce information.  Inconsistent processes are expensive, inefficient and may lead to compliance violations.  And unless you have a global solution that allows you to track people, work and costs in one place getting timely, reliable workforce information out of multiple systems is a lot like whack-a-mole.  Only in reverse.

Trend #2: Contingent Workers (aka ‘Diversity’ and ‘Who invited all these people?’) – The modern workforce is global, multi-generational, virtual and… 20% contingent!  According to current estimates it’ll be 40% by 2019.  This is a bit awkward for HR since most HR solutions weren’t designed to track contingent workers in a meaningful way.  Which is fine when you only have a few contingent workers but as the percentage of contingent labor approaches 40%  that’s a fairly sizeable knowledge gap.  Where are they?  What do they cost?  What do they do?  Wouldn’t you like to know?

Trend #3: Business Alignment (aka 'Show Me the Money') – Before your eyes glaze over, I read recently that HR people don’t act, talk or think like business people.  What they know is compliance and administration and they hire other people who know compliance and administration.  Ouch.  I've met and worked with plenty of forward thinking and businesslike HR professionals so I’m not sure this criticism is fair but I am sure that business alignment matters.  That means you don’t just roll out training and development, you do so with a higher goal of building critical skills in a particular workforce segment.  You also define success criteria before you do it and you measure how you did after.  It's all about bottom line impact.

Trend #4: Workforce Development (aka 'War for Talent') – Companies struggle with critical skills gaps around the world.  According to a recent Manpower survey only 27% of senior HR executives surveyed felt their business had the talent it needed.  Future business leaders will need a new set of skills, among which being able to lead global, diverse and virtual teams will figure highly.  Companies are considering a variety of strategies, such as tapping into previously underutilized talent pools (working moms, older workers, etc.) with new job deals and incentives as well as overseas assignments and mentoring programs.  Gone are the days of cookie cutter talent management, today it’s all about managing a fast and changeable ‘portfolio’ of targeted talent management strategies.

Trend #5: Sustainability (aka 'Let's Not Kill Our Only Planet') - Corporate sustainability has risen up the ranks on the executive agenda not only as stockholders, consumers and employees drive awareness but also as companies begin to realize the enormous cost of data in terms of physical, human and energy resources.  Sustainability is one of the trends driving Cloud computing adoption since sharing computing resources is significantly cheaper and more efficient.  This is really important but the key takeaway for HR?  The top things that consumers want companies to do when they consider responsible behaviors is treat their employees right by caring for their economic and professional well-being.

Trend #6: Social Media (aka 'Last Friday Night') –With so many people involved with social media platforms, the big challenge for HR and companies in general is that you no longer control your brand.  But for companies that embrace this idea as an opportunity the returns in terms of productivity, community and engagement can be huge. There’s a great write up from Balakrishna Narasimhan (@bnara75) about HR and social media here.  And speaking of Last Friday Night, check out Workday's flash mob video and prepare for some serious flash mob envy.

Trend #7: Engagement (aka 'Prosperity') – We’ve been talking about engagement for so long it hardly feels like a trend anymore but I’m going to go out on a limb and say 2012 is the year companies actually do something about it.  At least, I hope so because disengagement’s expensive.  Whereas not only can an engaged workforce supercharge an individual company it actually has the power to create prosperity, which should be everyone’s goal in 2012. Enough destruction of wealth already, it’s time to create more jobs, get talented people into them and show a little appreciation.  Easy peasy.

Here’s to exciting times ahead!  Are you ready?

No Comment

Dave Ryan and I were chatting the other day about how our recent project social topics have generated lots of new traffic but little in the way of comments so we decided our next PS topic would be, ‘Why do I comment?’  

Of course, we don’t know if our reasons for commenting are the same as yours but we're both so typical they probably are. 

So here’s why I comment:

1.    Your post made me laugh or struck a chord
2.    I’m letting you to know I stopped by
3.    I have an alternative point of view
4.    I recently blogged about the exact same thing
5.    I thought of the perfect one-liner

And here’s why I don’t:

1.    I can’t think of a darn thing to say
2.    I’m not sure what your point is
3.    Leaving a comment requires a password
4.    Your post is too long

Anything ring a bell?

You can check out what Dave Ryan has to say about commenting over at HR Official.

Project Social: What Is Influence?

I recently came across a couple of posts on social media that made me go, hmmn.

The first was about how to use LinkedIn to grow your social influence.  I made a mental note to read the post again in more detail and perhaps try out a few of the recommendations.

That's when I thought, hmmmn.  On the one hand, it makes total sense that the LinkedIn users who are the most active are also the ones who are most visible to peers, recruiters, hiring managers, etc.

On the other hand, unless your job involves using social media, your online presence is what is known as a hobby.  Remaining active and visible on multiple social media platforms requires a significant time investment, which either comes out of your personal life or your work life.

Or both.

Which made me wonder if spending more than an hour a day blogging, tweeting and 'liking' things really makes you more attractive to potential employers... if so, it's kind of ironic.

The other post that caught my eye was  a harsh dismissal of so-called 'experts,' accusing them of forming circles of adoration and  promoting each others' work in order to perpetuate the illusion that they have actual expertise.

Naturally, having a network of connections that sycophantically share everything you say - as long as you return the favor - precludes any real expertise. 

Which brings me to Klout: brilliant, seductive, a bit scary.  You can log on and see your score immediately, along with a cool visual representation of your 'influence.'  You can compare your influence to others.  You can drive up the influence of your friends, hoping they will reciprocate. 

You may tell yourself you don't care but you can't help feeling compelled to take action when your score drops.  So you spend more time on social media. Or you give Klout access to all your other social media platforms and now they OWN YOU.

What is influence, anyway?  These days it seems to mean getting people to click a button on your behalf, which sounds lame but actually makes a kind of sense.  I mean, if you can't even get people to CLICK A BUTTON FOR YOU, you don't have much chance of getting them to hire you or buy your product.

That's why Dave Ryan, Lyn Hoyt and I decided to form our own 'circle of adoration' (really more of a triangle) to inflate our online influence.  Amazingly, as soon as Dave gave me a '+ K' my Klout score jumped 5 points without me getting any new knowledge or experience.  

(Of course, I've always been very influential.  People just didn't know it.)

What does all this mean?  First of all, it seems fairly clear that influence has more to do with popularity than expertise.  Of course, this doesn't mean that influential people lack expertise but it also doesn't mean that the people who influence you necessarily know what they're talking about.

I'll leave you with that thought but be sure to check out Dave's and Lyn's posts on this topic over at HR Official and The HR Bacon Hut, respectively.

I Storyvite You

When I saw this article on TLNT about creating a visual resume from your LinkedIn profile I was intrigued and decided to give it a whirl. 

I signed in using the free registration code offered in the TLNT article (spoiler: it's 'tlnt').  Not surprisingly, the first step is to pull over your LinkedIn information.

After this things got a little bumpy.  I was advised to update my profile, which I ignored because my LinkedIn profile – while not my best work – is fairly complete.  Instead, I opted to cut to the chase and go right into the visual profile.

At this point the user experience was reminiscent of working in Powerpoint only without all the options you expect.  The tag cloud depicting my strengths and experiences is self-generating and I could never get it to look quite the way I wanted.  The slide templates leave you on your own with sizing and alignment and the examples offered for each type of slide weren’t always relevant.  The preview looked like a slide show that swirls around in a cluster instead of advancing sequentially.

My first impression was that I could have done a better job in Powerpoint.

So I took a break and came back to it, determined to give it a fair shot.  Again I was asked to update my profile and this time I did it, not wanting to be one of those users who ignore polite procedural reuqests and then complain when things don’t work.  Suddenly the user experience improved.  For example, this time when I elected to ‘play’ the visual profile I got a groovy carousel:

‘OK, this is pretty cool,’ I thought.  Powerpoint can’t do that.  (Er… can it?)

I think this product needs some work on the user experience side and I’m not sure who wants to watch the Laura Schroeder story but the basic idea of simplifying information is a good one.  The result is less complete than my LinkedIn profile but it’s also more inviting.

One more thing: When you update your information you get to this page, which I think would be a good alternative public profile option to offer for people who aren’t into swirling clusters of slides or carousels. Sad, lonely people.

Why not give it a try? It’s free, it's kinda fun and for another few weeks it’ll help you stand out from the crowd.  As an added bonus, having your work experience fly around like that will help distract the reader from any missing skills you might have. 

I Just Don't Know What to Do With My iPad...

My husband I now have an iPad, which is fair because I'm his creative muse (which I'm sure he would agree with, at least if he wants dinner). was recently awarded two iPads at work in recognition for separate projects, making us a two iPad household. That means

My oldest daughter wanted the iPad but I was like, 'You're 7 years old. Go play with a ball or a stick like I did when I was 7.'

The problem is, I'm not sure what to do with the iPad. Yes, I'm a seasoned software professional. Yes, I spend most of my day on a computer. And yes, my company has amazingly cool iPad applications.

But I write. All the time. I'm writing right now. Even when I'm just browsing I need a proper keyboard in case I want to write something. Plus, I switch mediums constantly, so if I use the iPad for tweeting or Googling I have to switch back to my computer to pull up a document or type a longer email...

And I don't really want to play the bird game.

The problem here is clearly me because 11 million consumers can't be wrong, right? My husband thinks I'm weird. Well, more accurately, he still thinks I'm weird after all these years.

Maybe he's right. I mean, even the Pope uses an iPad, which means we can now receive the Papal epiphany of the day from any location. The Pope is more current than I am.

(I may be a late adopter but when they finally offer space travel with holodecks and replicators I'll be first in line.)

If I don't start using the iPad my husband will take it back and give it to someone more deserving. Like the Pope. So here are a couple of ideas I've come up with to incorporate the iPad into my daily family life:

GATHERING AROUND THE FIREPLACE SCREEN SAVER

BABY LINKEDIN

Project Social: Do You Facebook?

Dave, Lyn and I decided to carry on with the ‘social’ themes we’ve been tackling lately and discuss the different social mediums we are active in and how we use them.  Dave already has his post up at HR Official and Lyn’s aiming for Monday over at the Bacon Hut.

When it comes to social media, I pretty much stick to the basics: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blog.  I don’t use Foursquare, although I totally would if I were a stalker.  I don’t even have a logon for HootSuite or Empire Avenue.

I know, I sound soooo 2007…

As I explained in an earlier post, I’m a late adopter.  I wait to try things until I have a reason to use them, rather than inventing a reason in order to try them.  So, I didn’t join LinkedIn until my company was about to be acquired, I didn’t join Facebook until I decided to write a blog post about it and I didn’t join Twitter until my job went 'social.'

If you’re an even later adopter than I am, the hardest part is getting started, especially when it seems like everyone else already knows the ropes and has a million contacts.  I still remember signing up for Twitter long after everyone I knew was already using it and having a whopping 0 followers.   Fortunately, several of my Compensation Café colleagues took pity on me and soon I had 5 followers!  I felt so proud when I got up to 32 followers...

If you’re looking for advice about getting followers it’s actually pretty easy.  Just put yourself out there by reading, commenting and re-tweeting and the followers will come.  Getting people to RT you is more of a challenge and I’m afraid I haven’t yet figured out how to get all my followers to sycophantically re-tweet everything I write.  But I keep reading, writing, tweeting and commenting because I enjoy being part of the discussion.

Dave made a great point in his post about not mixing mediums and I think that bears repeating.  Different channels have different purposes and audiences.  But regardless of channel, if you use any social medium you have a public persona.  You want to watch what you share because friends, family, colleagues, customers and perfect strangers are watching wherever you put yourself out there. 

There’s a fine line between refreshing honesty and too much information.

The other thing to keep in mind is that social media can sometimes be confused with real life.  The people you connect with are (usually) real people and you may have genuine personal interactions with them.  Information is presented in easy sound-bytes.  Best of all, you can finally be the 'you' you always wanted to be.

It's addictive.

So here are a few ways to tell if it's time to unplug:

• Do you spend more than an hour a day Tweeting one-liners to people you've never met?  
• Do you neglect friends and family so you can count your followers? 
• Do you sleep with your Smartphone?

Project Social: Pleased to Tweet You

To tweet or not to tweet?  That is the question.  My project social partner Dave and I were discussing social media the other day and got on the topic of why we re-tweet (or don’t). 

You can read about how to get re-tweeted by Dave over at HR Official and chew the fat with Lyn about the synergies of Twitter and bacon over at The Bacon Hut.  (Get it? Chew the fat?)

Why do I tweet thee?

1. You re-tweeted something of mine – If you’re nice enough to RT something of mine I’ll try to RT something of yours.  
2. You wrote or tweeted something really good – Re-tweeting is the next best thing to having written it myself.  
3. I think I can use the information – I re-tweet it it so I can find it again later under my profile.
4. You support one of my pet theories or causes – That’s pretty self-explanatory, right?
5. You make an argument I hadn’t considered – This one’s my favorite.
6. You’re funny – I love funny.
7. I like you – You read my blog, RT my tweets and/or write amazing stuff of your own so I check in with you regularly.  
8. I want to encourage you – I just feel like giving you a pat on the back.  In a good way.
9. You came up with the perfect title – Good titles should be encouraged.
10. You asked me to – I’ll usually RT or comment at least once when people ask me to.

Why do you re-tweet?  Dave, Lyn and I want to know!

Project Social: Finding the Right Person

My project social partner Dave Ryan and I were chatting Monday about recruiting and how hard it is to find the right person. As a busy HR person, he must frequently rely on external recruiters even though recruiting is traditionally an HR activity and he’ll be posting on the outsourcing aspect of recruiting over at HR Official.

Whereas I’m more interested in how recruiting has evolved over the years. For example, a friend of mine is an IT recruiter and years ago over lunch she described how she found people.

As an example, if she was looking for a Java developer, she would:

• Call up a company with lots of Java developers and ask to be connected with the manager of application development or 'someone in the organization who could answer her question about...' some made up technical problem.
• Pretend to be a potential customer and chat up the lead gen folks until she got a developer name.
• Get hold of a company directory - best not to ask how - and cold call everyone in the department.

Basically, she'd call around and talk to people until she got a lead and then she would pursue to the ends of the earth if necessary. Not interested? A mere technicality.

Stalking is such a dirty word. Let’s just say she was really good at her job.

And she didn’t consider the job done until the ink was dry. Even once the fish was on the hook, so to speak, she made herself available day and night. Many times her phone would ring while she was making dinner for her kids and family life would halt while she talked some skittish candidate down off the ledge.

Although this wasn’t THAT long ago, the tools of recruiting have evolved quite a bit with social media. Not only is it easier to find and connect with people, it’s also easier to dig up information about them. And people are generally better connected as well so if one lead doesn’t pan out odds are they can tip you onto another.

So the entire process takes much less time, which unfortunately leads many recruiters to believe they can skimp on the small touches.

For example, I've gotten a surprising number of emails that go something like this: 'I have a great job that you're perfect for. If you're interested call me.'

Oh, yeah, I jump right on those.

Of course, some things haven’t changed: The best recruiters will always be the ones who can find people and form connections.

I was recently contacted about an opportunity via LinkedIn, which I declined. The recruiter - who had taken the time to provide job details, spell check his email and act interested in me - thanked me for responding. Then he politely asked if I knew anyone so I emailed a friend and asked if I could pass along his details. He agreed and a few weeks later messaged me on Facebook to thank me for hooking him up.

(If I were going to embellish this story I'd throw in a Skype chat or two but we actually managed without Skype or Twitter.)

Now THAT’s social recruiting in action.

Project Social - Why is HR Like Ice Hockey?

So we’re into week 2 of Project Social and Dave Ryan and I caught up last Friday to discuss next steps. One topic that came up is that our circumstances are very different and yet, here we are working together. Dave’s a male HR executive living in the Midwest and I’m a working mom living in Munich employed by a California-based software company.

We both have something to say about HR, however, and together we can say it louder.

We decided that this week we would interview each other. Dave wants to know more about what it’s like living and working in Germany and I want to know more about how being an ice hockey ref is a lot like HR.

Dave's interview of me can be found over at HR Official.

And here's my interview with Dave:

Laura: You are an ice hockey referee. What parallels can you draw between being a ref and being an HR executive?

Dave: In both roles the overall objective is to maintain order and provide a sense of fairness. While those are quite esoteric goals, if done properly both will promote an excellent environment in which to work or play. Consistency is another quality that should be demonstrated in both environments, this is reassuring to players and employees alike. In the larger sense this is all part of professionalism. A good official should never demean, or belittle players or coaches, just as a Human Resources Profession should never demean or belittle employees. It is pretty simple stuff when you get right down to it.

Laura: Are you as passionate about HR as you are about ice hockey? If your job was ice hockey referee, would you volunteer as an HR executive?

Dave: To directly answer the question the answer is No. If I could make a good living officiating, I would not dabble in H.R. For the time that I am on the ice all I think about is that moment i.e.: how many players are on the ice, how much time is left in the period, where is the player carrying the puck going to move it to and what is that players number, where is my officiating partner positioned; is the score on the scoreboard correct, all game related things. It reminds me of an old Nike commercial, when the off camera voice asks Jackie Joiner-Kersey what she is thinking about when she competes in the Olympics. The commercial cuts to a scene of Jackie running hurdles and you hear her shouting out 1-2-3- jump (over the hurdle) 1-2-3 jump, and then Jackie says, 'What do you think I was thinking about?'

Laura: What’s the most satisfying thing about HR and ice hockey?

Dave: I once heard a fellow talk about his work who said, 'That is my profession, my day job, but hockey is my passion.' I truly love being involved in both activities. There are probably many folks who would question my ability to perform the job in both roles (and they might be right). But, I try to do the absolute best that I can do each and every time on the ice and in the office!

Laura: Can you describe your biggest challenges in both roles? Are they similar?

Dave: The second answer first -yes. The biggest challenge in both roles is maintaining the sense of fairness and consistency. What is a penalty for one team should be a penalty for the other team. What is a disciplinary offense for one employee must be the same for another - otherwise I will have a coach or union steward taking me to task for the perceived inequities. To give you an example from the ice, a player who is known to commit a lot of penalties, is going to get far more scrutiny than a player who is known as a high skill player. If the high skill player commits an infraction, it may get overlooked because of his reputation as a "fair" player precedes him. This can happen in the workplace too. A problem employees may get more scrutiny that a top performer. Be careful, it is a slippery slope!

Laura: Do you feel like you make a difference?

Dave: Yes, I feel like a make a difference on the ice and one the job. If I didn't feel that way it would be time for me to do something else. I hold myself to that standard, and I feel that everyone else should be held to the same standard. Anyone who does not feel like they are making a difference should move on to something else. Like is too short not to care deeply, and immerse yourself in your passions, whatever they may be!

Laura: Thank you, Dave, for those honest and insightful answers. It sounds like both both roles require a high standard of consistency, fairness and excellence. And I couldn't agree more that people should be passionate about what they do. I'm looking forward to our next topic!

Project Social - Let's Clique

I'm the classic late adopter. I'm the girl who waited for an iPhone before upgrading my ten year old Siemens cellphone that forced me to buy a larger purse if I wanted to leave the house with it.

It's not that I lack technical prowess - I used to be a pretty good software developer before I moved into more functional roles and lost my geek cred. But I do lack patience with early versions that seem to be designed by - and for - unmarried engineers in their twenties.

In fact I insist that an application be developed by at least one harassed new dad in his early thirtees and tested by a team of busy moms before I will even look at it.

That's why I'm relatively new to social media, compared to many people out there. I started this blog about talent management about two years ago, joined the Compensation Cafe team about a year ago and finally caved to Twitter just a few months ago.

When I found Project Social over at Ben Eubank's Upstart HR, I signed right up. After more than a year figuring out stuff on my own it felt like the right time to reach out for some more experienced guidance.

Almost immediately I got a Gmail via LinkedIn from Victorio Milian saying I'd been paired up with Dave Ryan, otherwise known as the HR Czar - a name I recognized from my Twitter contacts. And sure enough, within a few hours of receiving Victorio's email I received a Twitter message from Dave asking how soon we could meet.

Dave is in the process of launching a new blog "The HR Official" and has already written a great post about our first international, Skype-based meeting. Since Dave already described our project goals and game plan in his post, I thought I'd cover why I recommend Project Social to any HR folks who want to get more involved with social media:

1. Social media techology has reached a tipping point where social has overtaken technology - in other words, you can be a technology dunce and still get your voice out there.
2. It's a terrific way to 'take the pulse' on topics you care about, find out what people are saying, and even chat with them about it.
3. Project Social will give you access to someone who knows the ropes and can help you take the first steps.

Dave asked me a great question while we were chatting: Do I think people in social media are cliquey?

I can only speak from my own experience. For the most part people are friendly and welcoming but many of them are business people and their time is valuable. You can't just sign up for Twitter and expect that everyone you follow will follow you back.

For example, I tend to follow people with similar interests, i.e., HR technology, talent management, compensation, etc. Selective following gives me more time to focus on topics and connect with people.

When it comes to building a social network I've encountered three kinds of people:

1. People who mostly ignore you, either because they are so well-established they don't need to cultivate new followers or so busy they don't have time.
2. People who respond to comments on their blog and thank you for re-tweets but never comment on your blog or re-tweet anything of yours. Some of them are good bloggers and you can learn a lot from them but don't expect to establish much of a relationship.
3. People who reciprocate, taking the time to comment on your blog or tweet your links to their own followers. These are the people who form your 'real' virtual network.

This list will be different for each person because different people 'attract' each other. Generally speaking, I passively follow the first group, spend a bit more time on the second group and make an effort to actively interact with and support the third group.

Just like in real life, I spend more time with the people I 'clique' with.

"I Thought of it First!" - The Movie

Remember this post about how a fake phone call can get you out of pointless, boring tasks and show ex-partners we've moved on?  Well, it was so popular I turned the first vignette into a movie using online xtranormal software.

It's super easy and free to use.  You pick your actors, write your script, add gestures, facial expressions, a sound track and voila!  It isn't perfect - I couldn't accessorize my actor with a cellphone, for example, or have her walk offstage at the end of the dialog - but the price is right.

Here's the movie - it's less than a minute long and only took about 5 minutes to make:

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7336249/

Poor Working Moms

Recently there’s been a fair amount of discussion around gender inequality when it comes to compensation. It turns out that on average, women earn as much as men with one notable exception: working moms, who on average earn less than men and childless women alike.

Now they tell me.

The disparity in earning power has as much to do with career choices as salary. There are several forces at work here:

Availability – Working moms are available at odd times and in an era where promoting work life fit is still pretty cutting edge it makes them stand out. The burden is usually on them to set expectations and find ways to make it work with individual personalities.

Flexibility – Lack of flexibility also plays a starring role when it comes to a working mom’s reduced earning power. Working moms are more likely to have limited ability to travel, relocate or live away from home during the week, all of which may deny them access to higher paying roles.

Time Out – In addition to missing salary raises and bonuses while on maternity leave, working moms lose months or even years of work experience. And not just the actual experience but the whole ‘being there’ factor that forms such an important part of human relationships. It's sad but true that corporate life moves on without you while you’re at home changing diapers and trying to fit back into your skinny jeans.

Perception – People who work long hours may resent people who knock off at 3 to pick up the kids, which is understandable to a point. Working moms also miss out on office social life, which can be even more damaging than missing meetings.

Note that none of these things involve people trying to put working moms at a disadvantage, although I do think there’s a tendency to focus on the superficial rather than the real. The reality is that although working moms have availability constraints, they are also highly efficient. Not all of them, of course, but the ones that were efficient before they had kids tend to be amazingly efficient after.

Now, you’d think in a company where ‘doing more with less’ is important this would bring them lots of success but it can actually have the opposite effect, as we will see below.

There are two kinds of working moms,* the plodder and the work horse. The plodder does her work, has a smile for everyone, and goes home after lunch. She’s well-liked but not on anyone’s radar for advancement. The work horse cranks out high quality work at high speed and could easily take on more responsibility but rubs people the wrong way with her relentless productivity and acting like her time is more valuable than anyone else’s.

Which is OK if you’re an executive but don’t try it with some lame-ass excuse like raising a family.

*There’s actually a third kind, the player, who has a full-time nanny at home and spends as much time networking as doing actual work. However, the player is rarely salary challenged and is therefore irrelevant for this discussion.

The financial disadvantage of working moms is not a legal problem, it’s a mindset problem. Even in Germany, where women can take up to a year of paid leave to have a child and two additional unpaid years, working moms suffer from the missed time. And companies are reluctant to hire women because they can legally go on extended maternity leave at any moment.

But the way we work is changing whether we like it or not. People are focusing more on work life fit, more people work remotely and social media tools are re-defining how we interact and collaborate. Today’s workforce is dominated by people who prefer face-to-face meetings (and lots of them!) but that is already changing on the heels of new technology, new economic reality and a new generation entering the workforce.

In this new world, the focus will be on output and quality rather than 'being there.' Relationships will still be important but they won't be based around the water cooler.

In this new world, the smart money's on the working mom.

How Social is Your Social Marketing Strategy?

When pioneer social media tools such as Facebook and LinkedIn first became available, they weren’t all that 'social' by today’s standards. Early adopters were people who wanted to network with others like themselves and you could only connect with friends or colleagues who accepted you.

Blogs were more social because they enabled people outside of one's immediate network to read, comment and join the discussion. Early bloggers laid the foundation for the creation of myriad online communities.

Twitter was an important next step in the ongoing social revolution and has evolved into one of the leading tools for sharing ideas and one of the fastest growing mediums for employer, personal and product branding.

One of the things that makes Twitter seem like catnip to marketing professionals is that it’s the perfect vehicle for selective disclosure to a target audience, i.e., a tweet that costs nothing leads people interested in a particular topic to a website offering a product or service related to that topic.

Follow me home, baby, come to mama!

Ah, but laying a trail of bread crumbs back to your website in the hopes of inspiring a sale is not what social marketing is all about. Sure, if you sell a product or service you want people to visit your site and become customers so, yes, in that sense, it is what social marketing is all about.

But that’s not how it works.

If you view social media as a new platform for traditional marketing, you’re basically just doing advertising in a new (albeit cheaper) medium. And while the cost savings are nice, don’t expect your social media campaign to go viral with that approach unless you’ve got the Old Spice guy on the payroll.

One of the keys to effective social marketing is that it isn't social if it's all about you. Effective social marketers listen more than they talk. For example, they pay attention to what their customers and target interest groups are saying, which allows them to respond in a way that is responsive, timely and relevant.

The challenge, of course, is time. Building social communities takes significant time investment. Let's face it, one person in marketing is unlikely to have sufficient bandwidth to reach a wide enough audience to capture the benefits of social marketing.

That’s where the 'social' part comes in.

Some ideas to consider when developing a social marketing strategy:

1. Define your objectives for social marketing: Drive sales? Engage with customers? Establish thought leadership? Attract qualified employees? Improve brand awareness?
2. Create a social media handbook for employees outlining communication guidelines. Many of them are already active in some form of social media - are you prepared?
3. Identify employees with relevant expertise who blog or tweet, or are interested in doing so. Review any existing employee blogs for content, appropriateness, style, tone, writing skill, etc.
4. Establish a ‘champions’ team of employees with an interest and talent for social media. Communicate regularly with the champions team to share information and ideas around themes, product messaging, upcoming campaigns, etc.
5. Identify areas of responsibility, which might include blogging, commenting, tweeting, joining conversations in expert forums, etc. Some people may engage in multiple channels, others may specialize.
6. Encourage employees to have their own blogs where they can promote key themes in their own voice to their own followers.
7. Champions should also be encouraged to support each other, with blog links, re-tweets, etc. Extending individual reach helps extend organizational reach.
8. As you establish your social media footprint, reach out to customers, partners and thought leaders and invite them to be part of the team.

In other words, harness what's already there. People want to be heard. And don't forget to measure which channels drive traffic and lead to real conversations - you'd be amazed by all the ways people find you once you go social.

On a final note, if you're still wondering how 'social' your social marketing strategy is, take this short social marketing test:

Have you assembled a passionate team of evangelists who can’t wait to tell the world how great your product or company is?*

A. Yes, the synergies are amazing!
B. We're working on it but we don't have executive buy in yet
C. We're trying to hire a social media guru
D. Our PR team handles all external communication
F. Er... no

*The corresponding letter for your response is also your social marketing grade.

Picture courtesy of Fred Cavazza.

Got passion?

In just a few short years, social media has become embedded in everything we do and it isn’t just for personal use any more. If you have a question while working, or are looking for a new job, you probably reach out to your network. You collaborate online. Maybe you read blogs to form opinions or write them yourself. Customers may praise or criticize your products or services in a variety of forums.

Like it or not, social media is not just part of our lives but also part of our product and employer bands.

Importantly for companies, it’s not just a select few representing your strategy to the world to any more. ANYONE can blog, tweet and/or shape public opinion. This represents an opportunity and a risk for businesses. The risk is what could happen if you don't advise your employees about appropriate use of social media technology.

One careless tweet... Scary.

What about opportunity? Consider this: Imagine if you had not just a few spokespeople, but a virtual army of evangelists for your company, product or services...

What would that mean for your product or employer branding? Do you think consumers would be interested in the fact that employees genuinely love your products? Do you think talented applicants would be impressed by the fact that your employees love what they do?

Of course the downside is if customers and employees aren't in love with you, or can't spell.

Developing a social media strategy takes attention, planning and execution but it also takes passion. Do your employees believe in your company, products or services enough to put their own names behind them? Are they excited enough about your features or company culture to tell the world?

If not, your social media strategy will depend on marketing professionals who are paid to sound excited about your company.

Which is OK but will ultimately fizzle because there are a lot of voices out there competing for attention. The ones people listen to are the ones with a passion for what they are saying.

Are you developing a social media strategy at your company? You should be because social media is here to stay.

But don't stop there. Look for people with passion to give it legs. Encourage and develop that passion. Harness it by giving it an outlet.

Most importantly, recognize the people who evangelize your products for their energy, creativity and passion.

Why bother? Because evangelism without passion is just... advertising.

Social networking or stand up?

In the early days I assumed that social applications like Facebook and Twitter were all about networking because, well, that's what everyone said. But then I got confused because there didn't seem to be all that much networking going on.

For example, after first reconnecting with school friends and catching up for all of five minutes, most of my Facebook relationships involved my 'friends' letting me know what movie or flower they are at all hours of the day and night. Not that this is completely uninteresting but it feels less relationship forming than an actual conversation or shared experience.

Mind you, it's not all one-sided. If I so choose I can also publish which Spice Girl I most resemble or announce to my network that I am watching 'Pimp My Ride.' It's also a good way to stay informed of the latest Youtubes or breaking news. And Facebook makes it easy to contact someone with a quick question or update, or write on someone's wall to express sorrow that their dog died (which is way more convenient than writing a card or calling), as well as stay in touch with people I don't see very often, all of which qualifies as networking.

But primarily people seem to use Facebook to create a virtual persona that is just a little cooler, wittier, happier and more glamorous than the real person. It's not about interaction, it's about advertisement. It's less about connecting and more about being connected.

Basically, it's not about us, it's about me. That's right, me, Captain Nine Tails, superhero, at your service. No time for a real conversation but I'll occassionally poke or 'like' one of your comments to show I haven't forgotten how close we are.

And the sarcastic shall inherit the Internet.

There are no interruptions in this virtual space, no need to listen politely to what someone else is saying while secretly thinking about your next comment, just the blessed quiet of the Internet that lets you to hide behind your gorgeous profile picture in tatty old pajamas and take as much time as you need to come up with a witty or jealousy invoking status.

Of course, with companies increasingly jumping onto the social networking bandwagon, the trick is to come up with comments that will make your friends laugh without alienating the colleagues and business associates that are also connected to you.

It's a fine line.

It's the best of both worlds. We never have to be alone again but we also don't have to deal with actual people.

So, it's clear why Facebook holds a certain appeal.

Twitter allows us to take our self-absorption a step further with real time updates of every thought that enters our heads, every cool thing we read and every fro yo stand we visit. Of course, we don't call it self-absorbtion, we call it 'personal branding.'

We count our followers the way 2nd graders count their Valentine's Day Cards.

Admit it.

It's brilliant really, scratching an itch most of us didn't even know we had. I mean, who could have guessed that each of us a deep, irresitable need to tell people that a carrot in our garden looks just like Einstein?

Well, OK, if you put it that way it's obvious.

Gone are the days when you would think of a great one-liner in the shower and not have anyone to say it to. . . (I see a huge market for shower Twitter, by the way, waterproof units installed right into the tile in case you have a thought worth sharing while shaving your legs, so you can 'shweep' to your 'tweeps'.)

Back then you'd have to remember your dazzling comment for days, maybe weeks, until you could finally contrive a situation to use it and try to make it sound spontaneous. And sometimes you forgot it altogether and the world lost a brilliant commentary gem.

It was like living in the dark ages.

But that's only half the story, and not the most interesting half. Twitter is also emerging as an informational platform for a worldwide collective intelligence, where the latest trends and ideas can be posted to a group of interested parties. It is a viable platform for applying political and social pressure. Opinions are shared and formed. Tipping points are reached. Communication is exponentially faster and necessarily more shallow.

The collective plugs in, absorbs data and subtly changes its nature.

I sometimes wonder where this sound byte-oriented, realtime communication will take us as a society. I wonder if when my children grow up they will be capable of having a face-to-face conversation with actual eye contact or if that will already be an outmoded concept. Perhaps it will cease to matter who people are as long as they have a cool avatar. Maybe over time people will cease to live in the real world altogether, preferring a cerebral existence that makes no ethical demands.

Then again, it could also be that the vast growing social network will become an important tool of human evolution, making us wiser, more tolerant, more informed, more connected to one another.

What do you think?

Social Networking at Work

Mapping social relationships is a fairly new possibility that has emerged with the proliferation of social networking applications like Facebook and Twitter, which have emerged in conjunction with growing globalization and the emergence of virtual teams. At a time when social competence is recognized as a key ingredient for superior business performance and project team members may sit in different corners of the world, we also see the emergence of widely used social networking applications that could measure and analyze social interactions. It’s not really surprising that a person’s social index score has suddenly become an interesting target for speculation.

Recently a popular HCM blog discussed the possibility of companies measuring a ‘social index’ for employees and using this to encourage social collaboration. The idea seems to be that the pressure of having a low social score would help motivate people to network more. Some of the posted comments were quite interesting, ranging from practical advice about how a company might measure social scores to one joking comment about how being popular in high school is not necessarily a predictor of professional success.

In other words, while it is true that successful people often have good social skills, social skills in themselves are not predictors of professional competence or job performance.

Additionally, although mapping out employee networking relationships may provide useful data points, such as pointing to communication bottlenecks, a high social index in itself can mean different things. For example, a high level of interaction along a particular communication channel may point to an extremely helpful, mentoring individual, a relentless gatekeeper or a gossiping slacker. Conversely, someone with relatively few interaction points may represent a communication problem or they may work in an area that requires little interaction. It is also possible that this person does such an effective job communicating that no one has any questions for them.

Having said that, let’s assume we all agree that social networking can be a valuable tool in the workplace and we want to encourage it. One possible way to facilitate social networking in the workplace is to leverage existing social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This is appealing because these platforms are open and using them doesn’t require proprietary investment. Additionally, open networking platforms open up the possibility of managing lifetime relationships with people that go beyond traditional employment relationships.

However, although the availability and popularity of existing social networking solutions may smell like opportunity to those who hope to harness the power of social networking, companies that want employees to embrace social networks to improve their productivity they will need to do more than rely on the innate appeal of flashy Web 2.0 applications and passively tap into existing social networks. They will need to think about how these applications should be used in a business setting and provide incentives for employees to network more – and the best incentive is that they actually get value out of the social network in the form of positive work relationships or useful information.

The Wall Street Journal published a fascinating article about social network analysis.* A company asked employees who they talk to and who they turn to for help and drew a map of these interactions that clearly showed gaps in communication. The next step was to remove barriers to communication and provide more exposure to employees with fewer interaction points. Social network analysis helped lower costs and improve communication for this company but they did more than just passively measure interactions – they also talked to people and took proactive steps to improve communication channels in order to achieve these results.
In other words, social networking may provide some interesting possibilities for improved performance but the real value lies in establishing and incenting communication channels that enable people to connect and work together more effectively.

* Engineering Firm Charts Ties: Social-Mapping Method Helps MWH Uncover Gaps,’ Dvorak, Phred, Jan 26, 2009.

The future of business applications?

Facebook is a popular social networking tool and there’s no doubt it has shaped how people use the Internet to network. And I definitely think there’s a place for it in the workplace, where your success may well be dependent on your social connections.

But is it more than that? Does FB represent the future of business applications?

To answer this question, I’ve interviewed a leading authority in the field on Human Capital Management, Dr. Laura.

Me: Dr. Laura, do you think businesses will start using Facebook as a team management tool at work?

Dr. Laura: Interesting idea, but challenging when you get down to it because it doesn’t seamlessly include the business applications your teams probably use, like document management, etc.

Me: Could businesses at least use data mined from FB to help determine which employees are most connected, or use Twitter statuses to monitor what people are working on?

Dr. Laura (laughing): Businesses could likely get some very interesting data points if they had access to the Twitter statuses and conversation logs of their employees. The problem is, people don’t use FB to tell people, “I’m working on my functional design now,” because that’s, well, boring. Most people use FB to put their most glamorous, funny, exciting self forward, which may be of some interest to business in a broader context but perhaps not really germane to daily operations unless someone’s really crossing the line.

Me: What if businesses wanted to use FB to track project and work status, internal communications, etc.?

Dr. Laura: There’s something to that, since more and more employees are on Facebook ever day. But once you introduce ‘Big Brother’ to Facebook it would lose its spontaneity. It would no longer be the grass roots social phenomenon that business are trying to harness. Think about it this way: A status of “I’m watching Pimp My Ride naked with a beer and a pepperoni pizza, come on over!” that is visible to all your friends doesn’t really mix with, “I’m conscientiously following up with Global Dynamics about their critical security problem with our product,” which is intended for a smaller audience.

Me: Could it be re-designed to do a better job separating personal and professional information?

Dr. Laura: Absolutely. But there's a cost. For example, adding things like tags and security filters so you can share private stuff with your friends and communicate upwards at work appropriately would make it more cumbersome and less fun to use. That doesn't mean it can't be done and done well, it just means it's not there today.

Me: I’ve also heard rumbles about using FB as a core system of record for business applications but I don’t see it – the information that, say, a global HR system needs isn’t there and even the information that is there is spotty. For example, if my company wanted to get my employment history from FB it would look like I only ever had one job.

Dr. Laura: I completely agree. As a core business application I don't think FB is quite there, at least not in its current form. But it is definitely meaningful for business and will probably evolve over time to play an even more meaningful role in business. Business is about people, after all, so business can't dismiss anything that has captured the imagination and mindshare of so many people. And I think that the journey of collective intelligence/networking/thinking/sharing has just begun.

Me: Thank you Dr. Laura, for your time and insights.

Dr. Laura: My pleasure. By the way, this is one of my favorite blogs.

Me: Thanks!