Category Archives: Community

Yo! I’m firing my current and only employee, Myself!

by

2

firing yourselfSome of you know that last summer (2012) or somewhere around there, my friend and cohort Sabrina Baker and I started Discovering Social. Our idea was to assists Job Seekers through Webinars, in person and online workshops, training classes, and whatever else we could do to help them incorporate social media into their job search strategy. We have seen amazing things happen in this endeavor and are running full-speed ahead.

After a few months of diving in and getting the word out we noticed that there were still a few Human Resource and Recruiting folk running  around still looking to learn more about how to build their personal and professional brand and online footprint and trying to determine how to use social themselves (in recruiting and other sorts).

We then began to serve both ends of the hiring spectrum in building our Linked In groups and focusing our training to assists both sides in their endeavor to use social media with work, finding jobs and in sourcing for potential job candidates.

We are seeing tremendous success in helping folks around the globe in this endeavor and it’s what’s keeping us up at night. We’re passionate (to overuse an overused word) about helping others in understanding the what, why’s and how’s of doing social and we’re making some headway.

Conundrum Ahead

That being said, I have found myself overworked and running in a million different directions between my usual HR Conferences, Speaking opportunities, Blogging both here and elsewhere, holding Webinars, training and workshops for Discovering Social and my own business > Social Buzz Concepts. Add to that all the social media management of not only these two companies but my clients as well, and to be honest my head is about to explode. I’m sure you’re exhausted just reading that. So….

I have taken the last few months to really seek out where I need to go and feel that I am to do away with my current company and business “Social Buzz Concepts” and migrate strictly over to Discovering Social as of today.

announcement

I will continue to blog here and over at Discovering Social, as well as SHRM We Know Next, and will continue to manage a  few client social media accounts as I can.

I am excited about where we are taking Discovering Social and I’m passionate about helping others incorporate social in their Job Search strategies, online networking and brand building and developing strategic planning into implementing social into their business initiatives.

Do Your Part

Now we sure could use your support so make sure to check out the NEW DESIGN on our Website, Follow us on the Twitters, Give us a “LIKE” on Facebook Page and join our LINKED IN groups to show your support!

I understand that this is a HUGE leap of faith for me and that thrills me – to no end. I’ve never been one to play it safe – and I’m cool with that!

We thank you for your support – you all are a fantastic community! Stay tuned for more updates.

If only Siri could be our Conscience!

by

0

doa post around this

If you’ve ever read the book “How to win friends and influence people” you probably remember Dale Carnegie mentioning the dangers of criticism and sending angry letters in the heat of the moment.

He goes on to share examples by a few famous folk such as Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain who made it a practice of writing the letter and yet never sending it. It felt good to get it out but kept them from looking like an ass. The writing of the letter seemed to be therapeutic.

This has stuck with me over the years but and has kept me from making a complete jackass of myself many times mainly through emails, since not many of us actually write on paper these days and stick it in the ole mail box.

Let’s translate this to our new digital age.

How many times do we receive an email, Facebook message or comment that makes our blood boil and we can’t wait to speak our mind and quickly respond. I see it all the time. However, that’s not the best practice.

It’s always a good idea to take a deep breath, step away and quiet ourselves to where we start thinking rationally again. We should perhaps use our noggin, pause and wonder if it may have been a misunderstanding on our part or maybe written incorrectly. Sometimes our thoughts in writing don’t always come across the same in words as opposed to talking in person, over the phone, or in a video conversation.

These things can totally be misconstrued and blown all out of whack and if we’re not careful can ruin friendships, working relationships, business deals and more.

I came across this funny pic above, that though it doesn’t relate to angry letters or emails, made me wish sometimes that we had a prompt on our emails, social media accounts as well as texts that would prompt us to seriously stop and consider the outcome of simply responding in the heat of the moment. To think rationally and down the road of the effects this could have in our relationships.

Maybe Zuckerberg is working on that, who knows.

I just wanted to remind us all (me included) that sometimes it’s best not to respond entirely or at least to take a step back and regroup before blasting folks.

And as in the pic above, it’s never a good idea to do this if you’re intoxicated :)

HR and your Social Strategy – Do you even have One?

by

0

???????????????????I always love to go to my extra-smart friends for guest posts to mix it up a bit. I’m quite boring, in reality, and don’t wanna bore you to tears. Jeff Waldman is one of my go-to-guys in that respect. Check out this outstanding post and make sure to connect with Jeff and his team. You can find them all over the place. 

Photo Credit: en.blog.zyncro.

_____________________________________________________

SocialHRCamp business partner Salima Nathoo and I recently co-authored a 2 blog post series for SmartRecruiters and Blogging4Jobs on “Why HR Needs to Speed Up Social Media Adoption” and “Why HR is Slow to Adopt Social Media”.  The former post focuses on the business case and the latter on barriers to adoption.  It was a tough exercise to go through because there are so many reasons why HR needs to adopt and why HR has not already done so.  The focus of this post is on a simple question that can be applied across all business functions.  The question is… “What does social media adoption have to do with strategy”?

Oh Right… Strategy…
Does it not make sense that the activities that you perform during the course of your work day support some strategic aspect of the business you work for?  Sure there are tasks that one would describe as mundane, repetitive, pointless, etc… but if you ask yourself “why” you are doing those tasks you probably could, or should come up with some strategic reason for why you do them.  The same holds true for social media.

Ah Ha Moment…
Before you dive into the social media maze you need to clearly understand what your core HR business challenges are that you are trying to solve.  Forget about social media for a second; every organization has challenges and strategic objectives that are being tackled.  If they did not exist there would be no organization to work for.

Ask Yourself…
Pull out the dusty HR strategy and the business strategy and identify the top 3-5 priorities.  Are you trying to attract higher quality talent to “hard-to-recruit” jobs?  Are you trying to solve a growing retention issue?  Are you trying to support the business expand and enter new markets?  Will you be tasked with organizational restructuring or acquisition initiatives?  You get the point but it’s critical for you as an HR professional to figure this out first.

2nd Ah Ha Moment…
For all you non-HR people reading this blog post this also applies to you too.  It does not matter what area of business you work in, the fact remains that you need to understand the core business challenges you are trying solve before you dive into social media.

Now You’re Ready to Think About Social Media…
You now have a crystal clear idea of why you want to use social media; now it’s a matter of identifying the social media platforms that will enable you to achieve the best results.  The task of figuring this out will be so much easier if you have a clear idea of why you want to use them in the first place.  Sorry, just slapping up a Facebook page because “everyone else” has one is a complete waste of time, and will ultimately make you look foolish.

So, think strategy first, then social media second.

This blog post was originally published in the Social Media Camp blog.

About the Author:

jeffSocial media enthusiast, entrepreneur, social HR strategist and educator, Jeff is the Founder of Stratify, a social HR solutions consultancy and SocialHRCamp, the first-ever global HR unconference. With a background in business, HR and marketing, and a diverse career spanning all facets of HR Jeff has been carving out and leading the way in a growing niche that brings together HR, social media and business. Founded in 2012 SocialHRCamp helps the global HR community adopt social media into HR business practices and will be running events in Canada, United States, Singapore, Philippines and India.

Facebook Groups and Events – A little Do’s and Don’ts Lesson

by

3

block meFacebook can be a great platform in getting your message out there, staying connected and for information and knowledge-sharing within groups. It also allows for the creation of events within those groups.

In allowing you to create groups within the platform, Facebook gives us the option to make the group and / or event,  private or public. What this means is if the group is public and and all updates within the group will show up on all group members walls. These postings will be make public.

If you change the setting to private, no one but those within the group will be able to see the postings going on within the group. These options work great when used properly – and I get it, we’re all still trying to figure out what “properly” means.

I’ve created, as well as been a part of a few groups over the past year or so and I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work (IMHO) and a few considerations. Let’s start with a few examples of what I like about Facebook groups and events:

  • I’ve been added to private groups such as that of my High School class back in Alabama which allows me to keep up with the local news and happenings around my small home town, stay connected with friends and keep up with class reunions and get-togethers. These groups should remain private so as not to bug anyone else who didn’t attend the same school and don’t want to be bothered by our banter.
  • There are some fabulous HR and professional groups I’m part of where we share blog posts and interesting articles. It also allows for great crowd-sourcing and knowledge sharing. It’s appeared to be a great gathering of peers and experts to share and learn within the theme (mainly Human Resource related) and create great engagement. It works, nicely.
  • I have created a few groups for specific events I was involved with (think ILSHRM and the Social Press Team), for upcoming LIVE Google+ Hangouts that I wanted to invite my industry friends to and it was a great way to stay in touch with the team that I had invited in sharing the event information (dates, times, place). A great new addition from Facebook was document sharing within the group. If folks had questions they could also post them in the group. After the event, I was able to go back and thank everyone for attending, share the link to the hangout if they weren’t able to make it, and answer any additional questions. It seemed a great way to communicate within our favorite platform – Facebook. Oh, and it didn’t cost a thing save for a little time.

I could go on and on, but I think that’s enough for now.

Here are a few things I don’t like and a few other things to consider:

  • If you have an event going on in your local geographical area it probably isn’t a good practice to hit the “Invite all of your Facebook friends” button. I get a crap load of these things where unless it is a VIRTUAL event that I can actually attend – it just gives me more to do. I have to go into Facebook, click “leave conversation” and feel like a jerk because I look like I’m not into what you’re doing. To me, it just doesn’t make sense to invite someone to your local event – unless they live in your local area. And it’s annoying.
  • You can invite folks to your group and / or event and use it for some awesome things but if you do this non-stop and are adding the same people – you’re abusing your power. Let’s face it, we are so busy deleting and sorting through emails and blogs – giving folks more work through Facebook every day will have you unsubscribed in a Minnesota minute. They’re getting a zillion notifications and it’s pissing them off.
  • That being said, I should point out that you can change your personal settings so you don’t get all the notifications – even if you would like to remain in the group. Check them out, I think it will make your life more manageable.
  • Don’t take it personal if folks you’ve added to your group leave. Perhaps they are getting way too many notifications, maybe they can’t attend your local group cause they live in Zimbabwe or maybe they just don’t like the Facebook group thing. It’s more than likely not personal so keeping that in mind is key.

In the end, it’s not these apps and platforms that are driving us all nuts – it’s the way we’re using them.

Okay, what did I fail to mention? Do you have anything to add?

Photo Credit: KeepCalm

The value of using Google+ Hangouts within your Organization

by

0

google hangoutIt’s been a year and some odd months that Google+ brought us the Hangout which we slowly eased into for fear of folks seeing us in our pajamas. Now, we hear about hangouts happening almost every day. And yes, even in Human Resources.

Sometimes we feel disconnected from employees that are perhaps overseas and we talk with them mainly via email or sometimes Skype and are really looking for a much better approach to talking with those with whom we converse on a regular basis.

I love Google+ Hangouts and here’s why:

  • They close the disconnect. Let’s face it, you can only do so much with email. And it’s a known fact, we spend tons of hours a day (up to 2 hours) not to mention the costs associated with it, trying to track folks down, see if they’ve read your emails, find out why they haven’t responded. Hangouts cuts out all that and allows for real-time face-time with up to nine folks.
  • Hangouts can be recorded.  This function can be a great asset to holding virtual sales meetings (or any kind of meeting) that can be recorded, automatically saved to Youtube (marked as private) and shared within your organization at any time. This is especially great for those who don’t show up or are late to meetings. Or, perhaps you have sales teams across geographical points, hangouts would be a great tool for management teams to gather together to share knowledge, brainstorm and then share with their teams.
  • You can share documents, videos and / or presentations within the hangout. Talk about opening new ways to train your team. I’ve used this in several of my hangouts especially with some very cool HR Tech developers to host a demo to those within the hangout. We were scattered all over the globe, yet we were participating LIVE with one another, while watching a presentation, while participating on the demo of the technology within our smartphones and/ or tablets. It’s really a shift in the way we do things…..
  • I’ve also used hangouts to showcase HR conference speakers and bloggers for an upcoming conference. What this does is allow the rest of the world to spy in on your conversations (if you make them available to the public) and really get to know your speakers and bloggers on a personal level. We’ve also used hangouts for LIVE STREAMING our events to those who weren’t able to make the event. It’s a win-win, really.

The only thing that is limited is your brain’s capacity to be creative in how you can utilize these fantastic technologies. These fantastic tools can assist you in creating better engagement, greater communication with your team members across the globe, and aid you in your everyday first-world problems within your organizations.

And did I mention it was free?

Here is an example of one hangout I did. Take a look and get a feel of what it can do for you!

For those of you not yet on the Google bandwagon, here’s a great guide “The Complete Google Guide.”

Building your online community BEFORE you need it!

by

2

online community buildingI’m a part of a fantastic community called #TChat (Talent Culture) and World of Work started by the awesome Meghan Biro. You should check out the TChat radio program on Tuesday evenings and our Twitter Chat on Wednesdays > Read more about that HERE. This is a fabulous global professional discussion where we discuss things from Social Business and Branding to Careers and the World of Work.

This past Wednesday we discussed “Connecting Career Dots“ and let me say it was a great discussion. I learn so much from this community. You need to connect with them. It’s always great to learn from others in business and hear their expertise, experience and to always be learning.

One of the questions that was on the agenda that we discussed was our “What is your advice to those in the Job Market for utilizing technology” and my answer was a big “Build your Community BEFORE you need it!“

Building an online community takes time, effort and patience. Some people just don’t get this.

Some people start their social strategy without a strategy and think that they can immediately start selling their wares, themselves, their careers, their resume’s or whatever and that’s just not how it works.  It takes time to build a trusted brand and community that includes sharing others content, retweeting, interacting, engaging and proving that you’re an expert in your field. Why would you want to shoot it all to hell by self promotion?

Social Community Building is a sticky wicked. Granted, you’re there to show the world how fabulous you are but there is a thin line between self-promotion and showing you’re all that! It’s more about relationship building.

I have folks tell me all the time “Susan, you are so connected – how did you ever get that way?”

My answer? I follow folks that I wanna connect with. I engage with them. I share their awesome content. I make them laugh. I comment on their updates. And then they start noticing you…….it starts happening. They start following you back. They start commenting on your updates, and so on, and so on.

Yes, this takes a lot of time and perseverance. But the end justifies the means.

I know that if and when I need anything, I have a community that knows the answer or where to go to get it. These folks trust me and are totally willing to lend a hand, send a recommendation, help me get a job or refer me to someone who needs my goods.

If you were laid off today, do you have that community that you could go to for these kinds of things? Something to ponder.

Photo Credit: Andar360

When HR is kicked to the Curb

by

0

I can’t tell you how many emails, DM’s, Facebook Messages and LinkedIn messages I get from folks that are looking for work. And I don’t mind at all.

I love connecting folks with other people who are looking for prime candidates online and looking for referrals and recommendations from people they trust. That’s the new way of doing it.

With every new job posting it seems there are hundreds applying for that same position which can be very frustrating and overwhelming to someone in our current job market.

Even if you’ve gone to college and received a PHR, SPHR, GPHR or GOPHER (okay, I made this last one up) and have worked in your field of expertise for hump-teen-million years – you are not exempt from being laid off. It’s a fact!

It’s interesting and alarming that so many HR and Recruiter friends are the ones contacting me lately with the awful news of them finding themselves being laid off, canned, booted out of their long-term positions and some of them are frantic. I would be the same.

I will say it again folks, nothing is EVER a sure thing.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’ve found yourself in this position and are in job-search mode:

  • Network: Try and stay connected online and off. You may just connect to the right person that can make that introduction to a key connection that will help you get that next gig.
  • Don’t be afraid to reach out to your connections and let them know (like folks are doing with me – and that’s cool). Sometimes you just have to open that mouth (or email) and let others know your business. We all need support. And again, your connections may be key in helping you get that next opportunity.
  • Keep your certifications up to date. Go to conferences and sit through all the boring sessions if you have to.
  • Continue to pour any and every kind of knowledge in the ole brain. And no, you don’t already don’t everything there is to know. If nothing else, it will help you maintain your sanity. (Note: Try to refrain from all the Alien shows. You don’t want to mention those in your next interview)

It hurts my heart when I receive an email from a friend (especially a smart and savvy HR friend) telling me they were just let go. I immediately go into a mode where I’m looking through all my connections to see who I can connect them with that can help, wracking my brain for a job posting I’ve seen across the Webs that have been shared by my recruiter friends and struggling to try and see how I can help them in their search.

As I stated yesterday on a status update “It takes a Village.” But if you haven’t invested time in building that Village before you need it I just don’t see how you are going to survive this new way of the social job search incorporated into your strategy.

Being able to connect and pull from those said Villagers is key in getting ahead in your job search in today’s social savvy marketplace.

For more info on how to develop social into your job search strategy check out Discovering Social’s “Defining your Personal Brand.”

Social Media; If you can be offended, you will be!

by

5

Whether it’s email, Facebook, Twitter – putting something in writing sometimes can bite you in the rear! It doesn’t have the same affect as if you were talking to that other person – in person.

You can type out a status update and it be completely meant one way and taken in a completely different context and blown out of the water! It happens all the time.

I am probably evil because in knowing this, I sometimes use it to create (on purpose) one to contemplate “Does she mean this in this way, or that?” I ride the edge.

We have to be so careful these days what we post online in our communities as to “not offend” those in our space – whether it’s discussing race, politics, religion or if someone is tall or short. I have offended more than my share of folks in my community and have learned valuable lessons.

Sometimes there will be those who can never be pleased no matter what we share – even if it wasn’t meant for them, they will be offended. They’re soft-skinned.

I think if you’re going to put yourself out on social you need to take everything with a grain of salt. Toughen up! Not everything is about you, your gender, your race, or whether you’re a giant living among small people.

People share all kinds of stuff online from what they just ate to photos of them eating it, talk about their crazy families (okay, maybe I’m the only one that does that), to boasting about their achievements – and I could go on and on.

My point in this post is we are getting way too stressed out and offended about the most idiot stuff.

Perhaps it’s time for you to pick up the book “Don’t sweat the small stuff” once again and give it some thought. Why are you allowing these dumb postings to aggravate you and get you all out of whack?

I think this is on my mind right now because of what we all dealt with during the elections. Folks were cursing their friends, blocking, deleting like it was going out of style – just because they couldn’t agree.

Guess what? You’re never going to agree 100% of what folks share. Get over it! Life is too fragile for this kind of BS.

The great thing about online activity is if you don’t want to hear that person go on and on about whatever – you can block, delete or hide them or their updates.

Now, if we could only do that in person.

Photo Credit: APainfulTruth