Tag Archives: social media marketing

Does owning your own business make you a slacker?

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So yesterday I received this from a family member with a note saying “you should try out for this position.”

I get it! They think because I run my own business that I don’t really do anything. That I’m not busting my rear trying to make a go of it. That I’m not only running my business out of my home, but taking care of two dogs, a home, a husband, volunteering with local organizations, attending and blogging for major conferences, writing, holding HR Roundtables, and so on.

Why must they insist on continuing to send me these kinds of things as if I’m just “playing?”

I’m bringing home the bacon. I’m just not working for the man. I’m not a slacker. In fact, I think I put in more hours into my business than I would probably put in if I worked a nine-to-five-er because I can walk outta there and leave it there.

Do all of us who own our own businesses deal with this same thing? I’m curious.

3 Careers predicted to dominate Social Media

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Like most of ya’s, I read so much stuff online. From articles, to blogs, to statistical information anywhere from HR, Social HR, Technology, Business, Social Media, and so on, and so on.

I came across this article over at Mark Schaefer’s site, where he discusses Marketing, PR and Social Media, titled “Three Careers That Will Dominate Social Media (And it’s not what you think).”

In it, he explains that while PR and Marketing will of course continue to remain in the swing of things, here are a few folks that corporate recruiters are looking into hiring for their social media departments. Careers in these three fields and transitioning into SoMedia are booming and he explains here in this excerpt:

1) Journalism. The social web’s need for content and storytellers is insatiable. I was recently on a panel with a dean of a large journalism school and he said they are having record enrollment. Why? Where are these people getting jobs?  Alternative media. The ability to rapidly crank out superb content is at the heart of any new media strategy. As the information density of the social web continues to escalate to unbearable levels, the ability to stand out through scintillating content will be essential.

2) HR/Change management. You want to know the biggest problem companies face in finding social media success? It’s not budget or talent or vision. It’s corporate culture. Every large company is creaking and churning toward a reaction-oriented, empowered culture that can succeed in this environment. This change is going to take some gut-wrenching organizational shifts and, as we are already seeing, the jettisoning of entire teams of people who don’t have the right skills to make the transition.  HR needs to be in the middle of this transition — and move these companies forward quickly!

3) Statisticians. If I were hiring a new social media marketing employee today, it would be a statistician, not a marketing major. Marketing has always been about finding insight from data but in the past that data was pretty difficult and expensive to come by for most businesses. We are entering the era of big data where marketing — even at small companies — will be ruled by math. The lack of basic understanding of statistics and analytics by social web “experts” and SEO consultants today is shocking. But make no mistake, this is where the treasure lies.  I think it would be easier to teach marketing to a statistician than the other way around. Marketing success will come to those who will be able to tease the most insight from data, so I’m putting my money on the numbers folks.

I find it very interesting (#2) and his last statement “HR needs to be in the middle of this transition – moving these companies forward quickly. We’ve all heard this coming from a mile away. And I can see his point. But then I notice so many of my HR friends who have been booted out of a job. They’ve been down-sized.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this. I know you have them :)

Photo Credit: HRAdvocate

Social Media doesn’t mean I play on Facebook all day

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Today’s guest post comes from Crystal Miller from TheOneCrystal.com. I am subscribed to her blog and just recently she posted this amazing piece that I just had to ask her if I could share with all of you.

Originally Titled: “Just Because It’s Social Media Doesn’t Mean It’s Playtime“

The other day I was talking with a former co-worker & friend over coffee.  She made the off-handed comment about our former co-workers, “We’re all jealous… you’re so lucky to get paid to play on Facebook all day. “

*Sigh*  They don’t get it.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that comment & truth be told, I’ll joke that I get paid to be on Social Media … but there’s much more to what I do than playing around on Facebook & tweeting all day.  In fact, the status updates & tweets that fly around under my handles don’t even make up 25% of what I need to accomplish as a Social HR professional.  And I’m not alone…

While social media responsibilities have certainly made their way into the job descriptions of HR professionals, Recruiters, and Talent Marketing professionals; it’s certainly not a primary focus.  We still have to do all of the things we did before; but now we need to work that in, too.  In addition to the aforementioned roles, now we have “Digital Strategists” & “Social Community” professionals; who create/manage the online presence for their organizations, brands, products.  For company & ‘profersonal’ purposes, it’s important we’re seen day in/day out on multiple social platforms; creating engaging environments for interests/relationships to flourish.

When it comes to creating engagement in recruiting, there’s a lot more than saying, “I have a job to fill” or “We’re hiring” or making off-handed comments about what everyone’s having for lunch.  You have to inform, inspire, challenge at times, & have a genuine interest in the people you’re reaching out to.  They’re more than just avatars or numbers; these “handles” you talk to represent real people with real goals that we have a responsibility to pay attention to.  We have to understand organizational and consumer psychology; as well as often create digital marketing materials to entice them to have offline conversations with us. It’s part of our jobs.

To do this, we have to spend time paying attention to current trends, analyzing what’s going to be hot, culling content in blog/news articles, white papers & various research; sharing funny antidotes (that we first have to find), and creating our own content that our target audience will respond to.  This? Takes a significant amount of time… and that doesn’t even count the time we need to spend responding to the people who reach out to us on various social platforms & proactively “reaching out” to our target audience on their social landing pages. Then we have to create schedules & themes to ensure cohesiveness with the overall internal & external brand objectives.initiatives we’re working with.

Inevitably, early on most of us have asked the question (usually in frustration) “Who has the time to get all of this done?”  Even some veteran “Social Media Pros” complain that there’s ‘not enough time to do the activities required to sustain influence within our associated communities while actually working.  Even those of us that are supposed to be providing solutions can perpetuate the perception problem that working in social media isn’t really work at all.  Fortunately, though, there are a plethora of existing and emerging tools that help ease the time burden associated with consistency.

For those of us that find a personal assistant to handle the administrative/research side of our ‘#Social Work’ anything but reality; utilizing those tools becomes almost a productivity imperative.  Personally, I’ve got a watchful eye on Social Media Content Management Systems such as BundlePost to help me not only schedule content for my applicable hash-tagged communities; but find the content on the net for me as well.  TweetAdder, Hootsuite, and TweetDeck have long held a place in my world for making Twitter Chats happen & managing 8-12 different Social Media identities.  Wordpress, Twitter, Facebook, & LinkedIn’s associated mobile applications have made it possible for me to be completely connected with my communities at all times; allowing for more ‘real-time’ responses & stable engagement levels.

For many like myself, we then have to take those online conversations offline & handle traditional ‘old school’ recruitment responsibilities of evaluating, matching, and recruitment life-cycle management.  That, in and of itself, is a full-time job for many.  When you add in the aforementioned?  It’s about 10-12 hours a day of real, focused work; if the stars align & we’re really lucky. In a sense, I guess we ARE lucky in that most of the Social professionals I know are truly passionate about the work they do – which helps the massive amounts of it seem a little less overwhelming.

But make no mistake, it’s not playtime – Social Media professionals have to work … and unlike many others, ours never really turns off.  #nowyouknow

About the Author:

Crystal Miller says “I’m just a girl in the world.. that kind of likes to write. Mom of 2 teen girls & work as Talent Attraction & Marketing professional. Oh, & I’m addicted to my phone, Social Media, HR/Talent Marketing & Caffeine”… you can learn more about me at www.theonecrystal.info.

Twitter Connections, Meeting IRL, and Great Resources

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For the past 9 or 10 months I have been working the whole twitter thing! I started out having a twitter account for about a year and did absolutely nothing, accept follow a few celebrities (and of course my daughter who I wanted to keep tabs on). In fact, when starting out on twitter I was terrified. I couldn’t think of anything to tweet or who to follow. The big question was WHY TWITTER?

That’s because I didn’t understand the strategy needed for business and / or personal branding.

Then came 2010. I was attending networking groups as if it was my career and ran into Fred McMurray and thus began my discovery of social networking. He really was key in helping me understand why I  needed to be involved in social media for business, and I’ll always be grateful (thanks Fred).

I began reading books out the wazoo such as the basics of Twitter from my good friend Kyle Lacy and his Twitter Marketing for Dummies and his other book co-authored by Erik Deckers  entitled Branding Yourself. Both of which have been huge contributors in my online success. I highly recommend them and have become their new spokesperson (not really, but I do try and recommend them to those who can benefit from them).

Over the past ten months I have connected with so many wonderful folks online who I never would have met had I not taken the SM plunge and that to me, it totally cool.

It is especially awesome when you can then take those virtual relationships into the REAL WORLD and meet IRL (in real life). It reminds me of online virtual dating as I often refer to the experience because we connect, interact, engage and share each others interests and information and when we finally get to meet them IRL we feel as if we already have this weird connection. As if we know them already. We either greet with a hug and consummate (not literally) that online relationship, or we walk away thinking “Ew, they look and act nothing like their online persona.” The latter usually never happens.

This is exactly what took place for me recently after being asked to participate on SHRM’s blogging team for their annual conference in Vegas. In fact, it was through my connections with WEKNOWNEXT on twitter, that brought this all about. I was a total stalker to those with whom I had made connections online (especially my fellow bloggers). I won’t name them all for fear of leaving someone out but I will mention Jessica Miller-Merrell who welcomed me at SHRM with open arms and treated me like “one of the cool kids.”

In fact, I had just recently connected with her personally (although I had been following her blog and tweets) before meeting her in SHRM. I overheard something about her book and asked her “what book did you write?” She immediately handed me a copy of her book  Tweet This which is a Twitter marketing for business guide. I just finished reading it by the pool one afternoon and I must say I was impressed. The book is full of helpful tips and useful information in a consolidated format. It is a MUST have manual to keep within reach and will help you in your online strategy as well as continued twitter support.

I am so privileged to have come across so many helpful folks out there, willing to give of their time to help others. I suppose that’s why I try to give back to help those on their online journey. I highly recommend all of the above books and in connecting with these fantastic experts to help grow your business within your online communities.

Thanks you guys, you ROCK my world!