Month: May 2012

Social media: Why “get on it” (Part 2)

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Social media offers many great opportunities for “ordinary” people to become people of influence. How? The more people share, the more influence potentially grows because their audience potentially grows. I addressed who should engage social media and why in Part 1 of Social Media: Why “get on it.”

One of the greatest opportunities for influence, however, lies with business or organizational leaders. Social media is an avenue to thought leadership that reaches employees as well as interested stakeholders. For instance, leaders can influence company direction simply by consistently informing employees about their vision and the direction they are collectively going (remember, it is actually the employees who bring the vision to existence!). Social media offers the most personably direct line of contact beyond one-to-one or one-to-small group contact. Continue Reading →

Social media: Why “get on it”

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Social media has, for some people, about the same attraction as getting a root canal.

I’ve got a friend who refuses to “get on Twitter” or be active on Facebook (although he is a bit of a Facebook lurker (stalker?) – you know, like somebody who mingles at a party, dropping in and out of conversations but never really says much. “I don’t want everyone to know when I go to the bathroom,” he says.

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Guess what? Seems obvious, but what isn’t shared on Twitter, well, isn’t shared on Twitter.

But that’s just it. There is a lot that could be shared on Twitter, Facebook, Weblogs and through other social media vehicles (YouTube, Vimeo, podcasting, etc.). In fact, there’s a lot that should be shared through social media. Continue Reading →

Writing made easier in 3 steps

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Writing seemed to be the undoing of my fellow writer. I could hear the mental anguish coming from the other side of the cubicle partition.

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My friend with years of experience was on deadline and it was obviously painful. I slipped from my chair to offer a word of encouragement, but as I poked my head around the corner, I was shocked to see the hair on my always immaculately groomed friend standing on end. She’d been driving her fingers through her hair fighting for every sentence.

I decided not to say anything. I quietly watched her write; and it was excruciating, like having a root canal…with no anesthesia. I decided then that if writing became that difficult I’d take up something less stressful, like maybe testing warheads with a hammer at a missile factory. Continue Reading →

What you say impacts branding

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Leaders do not have the luxury to verbally swing and miss when it comes to branding their organizations. However, too many do, and when they do it isn’t as simple as, “opportunity lost.” In some cases it is reputation lost and job lost, and sadly many never understand what just happened.

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I was recently at a large convention where various non-profit organizations were giving annual reports to an audience whose attendees were largely responsible for their funding. The leader of one group launched into a speech that eloquently explained how the organization sometimes “gets it wrong.” I was expecting there to be some transition to juxtapose all that the organization did well. It never came. The longer he spoke the more he reinforced a negative image of his organization. It was a disaster! His associate sitting next to me nearly crawled under the table. Sad thing is this organization actually does some phenomenal work that unfortunately no one will ever know about (and may never support – after all, who wants to fund and organization that “gets it wrong!”). Continue Reading →