Communicators Anonymous

Higher Ed Communication Evolution

Higher education is near and dear to my heart. Over the past three years, I have seen instructors, students and curriculum evolve to embrace new ideas and technology at an astounding rate. In every class taught, I have incorporated hands-on social media training. Sometimes the addition to the curriculum brought about backlash from fellow faculty members and complaining from students who feared the additional work. Yet, at the end of the semester my perseverance was rewarded with the smiles and work of students who overcame their fear of the unknown.

Much of how and what I taught about social media was discovered through trial and error and discussions with fellow instructors. This is why I applaud Jon Hussey of American University for taking the institution to new levels of communication and relationship building. However, after reading the interview between Jon and John Moore, I am concerned about those developing social media strategies in the highered space and their views regarding policies, CRM integration and ROI. And it is not just American University who is struggling to find their way, I recently sat down with a group of educators who wanted to embrace social media, but were encountering road blocks at every turn.

Go Beyond the Channels

Social media goals, objectives and strategies cannot be based on channels (such as Twitter and Facebook) exclusively or there will not be any longevity in your social media endeavors. Strategies will forever be contained to campaigns instead of invested programs if there are no measurable goals and objectives (aligned with overall business goals) in place prior to social media engagement. You have to know where you are going to obtain the results desired. What are you measuring? Why? Yes, do listen for and determine where your community is talking and creating so you can begin to engage in those locations, but do not limit your opportunities because of the channels.  

Embrace Policy

Did a shiver just run down your spine with the mention of a policy? Sharing best practices and conversing with fellow employees does not replace the structure needed when an organization enters social media. Having a social media policy in place is not to box in the participants, but to provide education and structure for how to engage online, and empower your workforce to operate within accepted and encouraged boundaries with the freedom to be themselves. Online interaction is 24/7. Your policy will need to address how the workforce is engaging online during work hours and when they are not at work. Your workforce is representing the organization every time they interact online, even if you have a single “official” voice or limited number of official online spokespeople.

Provide clear guidelines for engagement and disclosure, so that all employees can represent themselves and the company clearly and professionally. By allowing your workforce do what they do best and act as your representative, your organization can gain valuable social capital, credibility, and opportunity. Radian6 (my employer) has some great resources about how to develop a social media policy and engagement guidelines. Check it out and discover you no longer have to be afraid of policy.

Speak C-Suite Lingo

ROI is not about influence, but about talking the same lingo as executive management. It all comes down to dollars and cents. Tracking clickthroughs is superficial information unless you can map the navigation to actions such as downloading a whitepaper, requesting more information or purchasing a product/service. If you aren’t familiar with Olivier Blanchard, he knows a thing or two about how to properly calculate ROI. View his presentation on the Basics of Social Media ROI and go beyond HITS.

Organizations spend millions of dollars to implement CRM tools and processes. Ensure you understand how your social media tools and strategies mesh with back-end systems like CRM. Relationship building through Twitter is not CRM unless the data is being captured in the same profile as all other correspondence. What is CRM? According to DestinationCRM.com, “True CRM brings together information from all data sources within an organization (and where appropriate, from outside the organization) to give one, holistic view of each customer in real time.” Remember, you want your social media strategies to become more than a campaign, but integrated into your programs…so learn to speak the language of those pulling the purse strings.

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Kudos to those universities that are diving into social media and transforming higher education. Do not be afraid to make mistakes. Do what you do best…educate yourself on the ins and outs of social media and how it integrates into overall business practices and objectives. You will take your lumps, but keep on trudging after lessons learned.

Zany: Tap Into Your Curiosity

Lately, I have taken for granted our ability to tap into our curiosity, embrace our imagination and think beyond our current norms. In the doldrums of the Twitter feed, many are often sucked into the activities of content regurgitation and knee jerk assumptions. Discovery is buried deep within the retweets and status updates; golden nuggets are rare, that when found, it is unknown what we should do with it.

In a recent TED talk, James Cameron discusses how he tapped into his curiosity to create the blockbuster, Avatar. He delivered these pearls of wisdom:

1. Curiosity is the most powerful thing YOU own.
2. Imagination is a force that can actually manifest reality.
3. Respect (of your team) is more important than all the laurels in the world.

“Don’t put limitations on yourself; others will do that for you,” Cameron says.

Every great discovery originated with creative imagination sparked by curiosity. What is your great discovery? Here are some ways I keep my mind and imagination active…How do you tap into your curiosity? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

• Read some good children’s stories. I recommend C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia (read entire series, not just those books that have been made into a movie). Currently, I am reading and analyzing Alice and the Looking Glass for a blog post series on online etiquette/privacy/community.
• Embrace the natural talents bestowed upon you. Since I can remember, I have enjoyed writing…fiction, non-fiction-it did not matter as long as I had a pencil and notepad. To cultivate this talent, I start each morning with a writing exercise from A Writer’s Workbook by Caroline Sharp.
• Think visually. Perhaps the written word is weighing your down original thought? I am no David Armano, but I love to mix up my thought process with mind maps and drawing exercises.

Take ownership of your curiosity.

Failure Is An Option – Fear Is Not

The title of this post is courtesy of James Cameron’s closing words in a recent TED talk. Cameron is of the opinion that failure must be an option-contrary to the NASA slogan, “Failure is not an option.” I am of the same opinion. Failure is OK. It means there is room for intellectual growth. Fear of failure hinders our ability to broaden our mind and innovation. Unfortunately, in social media, “failure” is a term that has been thrown about way too casually.

When all else fails (pun intended), I turn to Yoda:

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

Our collective fear of failure has turned the social media culture into an extremely negative bubble. Saying something has failed is the new equivalent to “whatever.” When we don’t take the time to learn from our mistakes or to understand the situation before jumping to conclusions, we label the situation/product/brand/company/person as a failure. There is no reflection or analysis; we move on to the next failure/dead meme. Poof! Our fear of failure is causing original thought to become stagnate and our relationships and businesses are suffering.

Failure does not mean we have done something wrong. No, we have done something right by taking a chance and seeking out alternative solutions as new opportunities for growth. We need to foster a culture to make mistakes-not to fail faster, but to fail at the right time.

How can we embrace failure and help end this vicious cycle?

1.  Experiment: Lessons learned are the results of failures. Our lives are one big experiment. Just think, with this frame of mind, the possibilities of discovery are endless! Ask questions. Go beyond your comfort zone. If we allow our Ego to think we have figured this thing called life out, we are doomed…personally and professionally.
2. Reach: If we never reach for the stars, we will never know our true abilities. Fear limits our opportunity to take risks. You never know you will not succeed unless you try.
3. Strengthen: What did your parents always tell you? When you fall, get back up, dust yourself off and try again. Let that childhood lesson remain true into adulthood and in professional situations. Failure builds our character after we have fallen, been humbled and rise back from the ashes.
4. Embrace: Failure is inventible. Write down your mistakes and failures. Look at your failure as a problem to be solved and break the issue into components that you can analyze and brainstorm additional paths to success. Change your thought process to be solution oriented.
5. Inspire: Celebrate your failures and use this as an opportunity to make yourself, others and your industry better. Share your stories. Be open about what worked and did not. Accept feedback and ideas other than your own. This is true transparency.

By no means am I an optimist. Those of you closest to me or who have read this blog long enough, know I tend to look at the glass half empty. Despite this, I don’t want to live a life full of regret. Fear of failure will result in a drab existence if we allow this cycle of hate to consume us. Becoming more comfortable with failure builds a tougher skin, boosts courage and gives us the strength we need to pursue and achieve success. Don’t you think triumph is a bit sweeter after we have tasted and overcome the bitterness of failure?

So, before you label something with #failure or proclaim something dead, take a second look. Perhaps what has failed is your ability to see the bigger picture.

Food Network: Do Not Let Community Control Leave a Bad Taste In Your Mouth

Guess what? I still read print magazines. (GASP-the horror!) One of the few magazines I still subscribe to is Food Network Magazine. Every month, I look forward to this colorful magazine (actually a closet foodie that does not have one domestic bone in my body) because of the exotic recipes and tidbits …not social media advice.

In the April 2010 edition, the Ask Ted column takes on restaurants and bloggers. The Ask Ted question specifically is, “If I don’t like a restaurant meal, should I blog about it?” I applaud FNM for tackling this question and that Ted Allen addresses this social media truth, “Chefs have to confront the reality that anyone can publish withering report cards-instantly, even in the middle of a meal.” However, the column takes a turn for the worst when Allen outlines new-media foodie “rules” of engagement before publishing a review.

The advice given by Allen is actually a set of guidelines…not to be confused with rules. As an interesting side note, in small print at the end of the column and beneath the call-out for questions for Ted is this: Check out the Food Blog Code of Ethics at http://foodethics.wordpress.com/.  Nowhere in the body of text is this source mentioned. This source is a wealth of knowledge and brainy tidbits for the burgeoning social media foodie critic. But once again, this source outlines suggestions, not rules.

There are no rules. Social media is fair game for all to participate at any time and on any subject. Perhaps it is a matter of semantics, but the wording of “rules” scares me into thinking the chefs/restaurants can control the conversation and the magazine can manipulate the actions of the readers because most are ignorant about their online activities. Rather than position this advice as definitive, Internet publishing responsibility and suggestions for how to be a better amateur food critic should have been communicated.

Food Network Magazine, take a virtual page from the Nestle Facebook Fan Page and note that you cannot control the community voice. Embrace the engagement. Use the chatter to highlight evangelists and right the wrongs of those who are disgruntled. 

Social Media is NOT a Relationship Shortcut

This is the first of many posts I have been researching and drafting about etiquette, privacy and how we are maintaining our digital mirror (NOT to be confused with the dreaded personal brand).

Online interaction through a variety of social media channels has introduced me to new faces, points of view and opportunities. Twitter is one of many vehicles I can forge new conversations and acquaintances, but I have never treated social media as my sole resource for contact with the human race. Just because I follow someone does not make me their friend. Or because I have an interesting dialog with another person on a blog or Facebook, we are not instantaneous buddies.

However, the friends versus followers debate is an ongoing discussion and not what I intend to focus on in this post…

What I do want to ask is this: When did it become socially acceptable to leave etiquette behind at the proverbial virtual door?

Having instantaneous contact with someone does not exempt you from using the two simplest (yet, hardest to remember) words, please and thank you.

As a community manager, it is obviously my job to interact with people. It is assumed that I should be understanding, sensitive, patient, a good listener and provide exemplary due diligence to service my community. I came into the community manager position through the public relations cone. Contrary to popular belief, this career path was chosen not because I was a “people person,” but enjoyed communications strategy and being out of the lime light.

Please do not misunderstand this post to be a rant or to call out anyone in particular. I am just curious why we treat (myself included) those people who are providing a customer service as if they do not deserve the nurturing offline relationships require. We demand answers be immediate, judge first and ask questions later, then demand their knowledge be given for free. Nowhere in any of the community building or maintenance advice is it addressed how the community should treat a community manager.

So, let’s flip the discussion.

Is netiquette lost? Can it be taught? Is it wrong for an online community manager to request the same respect from others that is being demanded of them?

A Word to the Wise: Advice for SxSWi

It is that time of year again. The hype is here and the majority of the social media fish bowl is about to embark upon the colorful city of Austin, Texas for five days of chit chat and parties. SxSW Interactive begins today. Let the festivities begin, but not without a word to the wise…

While I will not be in attendance (I am both glad of this fact, but disappointed I will not be able to see such a large gathering of my friends and acquaintances in one location), I wanted to share some food for thought to those in Austin for the event. During the times I spent at SxSW in years past, it was not the panels that intrigued me and kept me paying such an exorbitant amount of time and money to return, but the ad hoc conversations with friends and strangers that occurred in the hallways of the convention center or in a rare pocket of semi-quiet in a bar during one of the numerous after hour parties.

I stumbled across an article, The Persistence of Mass Culture, from New York Magazine written by Adam Sternbergh that summed up my thoughts entirely:

“We spend more time talking about what we think we’ll think than what we thought…As it turns out, social media are just that—social. And all our Twitter feeds and Tumblrs need a parade of shared experiences in order to thrive. No wonder we’ve shifted the emphasis from post-event breakdown to pre-event build-up: Analysis (here’s what it is) is finite compared to speculation (what will it be?), which is inexhaustible. Once we experience something en masse—or even as we experience it—we splinter off to our myriad forums to broadcast our personal takes. Then we look quickly toward the next mass event on the horizon, and wonder what everyone will say about that.”

During this conference, everyone will be in such a rush to tweet in real time the flub-ups and judgments throughout the day…panels will be regurgitated in short blog posts…tweets about the social improprieties that occur after hours will be in abundance, but actual analysis of what was said and done will be rare. Please take the time to think beyond what is easy. Share the wisdom you speak of in those ad hoc conversations. Be less concerned about meeting the Who’s Who crowd and reflect upon lessons learned. Think not about the next party, but what you have gained in the present. Please…ask the tough questions and go beyond the talk of 101 and what ifs to what could be and what we have the potential to accomplish. Don’t be all talk while at SxSW…walk the walk.

Blaze Your Own Trail

This morning, I was served breakfast in bed (strawberries sprinkled with dairy-free chocolate) by my husband in celebration of International Women’s Day. I had not heard of or celebrated IWD before 2008 when Leo came into my world. Apparently, in other parts of the world (specifically from Leo’s experience in Brazil) this day is highly celebrated and women given flowers in the streets by strangers. Sounds delightful. Yet, despite never having recognized this day before, I have always been surrounded by friends and family who have made IWD an everyday occurrence for me.

You see, my parents never told me I could not achieve anything. My sister and I were not hampered by boundaries. We could be whatever we dreamed. There was no one who told us it had never been done before and therefore could not be achieved or our dream would be a challenge.

No boundaries.

Last night, while watching the Oscar coverage and monitoring the online stream of chatter about the Hollywood prom night, I noticed several people commenting about the extraordinary win of Kathryn Bigelow as Best Director. Now that Bigelow had won the prestigious award, other women could now tell their daughters this dream was possible. When was it ever impossible?

This February, I was blessed with a second daughter. I will never tell either of my daughters they are hampered by their gender or race. They are individual human beings with equal rights and opportunity. They cannot expect to have doors opened to them based upon their gender, but due to their talents, discipline and dedication. They must blaze their own trails and not depend upon others to open doors that may be closed at present. They are in charge of their own destiny and how they execute their wills. I will encourage my daughters and other women to look to history as inspiration, but never as a limitation for what can and should be done. History is history. Blaze your own trail…live in the present.