As social media platforms come and go, technology changes, but key principles remain. As a leader in your organization, you need to remember these key principles. A simple, relevant acronym should do the trick: S.O.C.I.A.L. – Serve, Open, Connect, Integrity, Action-oriented and Listen. While these principles are important at all times, it begins with listening, so we’ll cover the principles in reverse order.

Listen

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. — Henry David Thoreau

It begins with listening. You must hear what your customer, follower or stake holder says and how they act. Chris Brogan, author of Social Media 101, Trust Agents and Google+ for Business, explains you should create “listening posts”. You can do this with free solutions like Google Alerts (email alerts anytime new content, relevant to your interests is added to Google), Hootsuite (streaming social media posts, filtered by keywords) or more advanced (and expensive) solutions like Radian 6.

Social media expert Chris Brogan recommends Listening Posts

Action-Oriented

Action expresses priorities. – Mahatma Gandhi

Once you’ve done some listening, you should ensure you and your social media team are action-oriented. A great example of action-orientation is the Superbowl monitoring station. Using Radian 6 to listen and monitor events, a team of responders is trained to handle any situation: from traffic backups to missing children. When posts come across of anevolving situation, the monitoring team responds accordingly – from sharing alternate routes to alerting police.

Super Bowl Social Media Monitoring and Command Center (source: iupuiprssa.wordpress.com)

Integrity

It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Your actions mean nothing if you do not reflect integrity. When actor/director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma and more) was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight, because the crew believed he was large enough to require two seats, Smith blasted Southwest on Twitter. This provoked an outcry from Smith’s fans. However, Southwest Airlines quickly clarified to fans and the public that Smith typically purchases two seats, given his size, but in this case, tried to fly an earlier flight for which only one seat was available. The airline apologized to Smith for any offense. However, SWA also explained that, unlike most airlines, Southwest has a policy to refund any unnecessary “extra” seats purchased by “persons of size” when a flight is not full.

Southwest Airlines responded with integrity to Kevin Smith's complaints

Connect

Eventually everything connects – people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.- Charles Eames

Even if you practice all other principles here, you may have no impact, without the right connections. The key to successful social media application is the quality of your connections. Follower ratio and the composition of your follower base is increasingly important. You may have a million followers, but if they only follow because they want the follow back, the relationship is useless. LinkedIn Lab’s InMaps provides a great method to visually depict your connections, their relevance and any potential overlap.

My Connections on LinkedIn - Mapped by InMaps

Open

There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy. – Joseph Pulitzer

The more open your culture, the better. Domino’s Pizza recently opened their culture when they launch the “Oh Yes We Did” campaign and the Pizza Turnaround website. The company posted media of customer’s blasting the quality of their product. Then the company captured reactions from the same customers as they tasted the company’s response – all new ingredients and recipes. The result was a hit, driven by authentically open response to customer concerns.

Domino's Pizza customer blasts the product in a focus group and praises the final result

Serve

“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” – John C. Maxwell

On a recent tour and visit with Zappos.com Insights team, I got to see service in action. The company focuses on serving their employees with benefits like free food, free personal coaching services and more. The employees in turn focus on serving their customers first, by ensuring their needs are met – even if Zappos doesn’t make a sale. The longest call on record, without a purchase, is somewhere over 8 hours. Because they care enough to serve first though, their customers are huge fans, that double as the company’s “free” marketing force.

The Zappos.com front desk displays the sign reading Powered by Service

The next time you wonder what principles are important in social media, remember they have not changed for thousands of years. These same principles have been important in business, organizational life and communities in general for a long time. However, perhaps this simple acronym will help you remember the most prominent principles: S.O.C.I.A.L. – Serve, Open, Connect, Integrity, Action-oriented and Listen. Be SOCIAL when interacting with media.

Question: What principles would you add?

There are 7 E’s required for social media success. Success in social media may require more, but it will not happen without at least the majority of these:

Your followers want to know you stand behind them – not just your cash register. -Ben Lichtenwalner

1. Empathize

Followers want to know you understand them. If you want fans, subscribers or customers in social media, empathize with your audience. Domino’s pizza did a good job of this with their “Oh Yes We Did” campaign. In this series of traditional and social media marketing messages, Domino’s Pizza confessed to poor quality and said they would change.

2. Encourage

Support your audience through encouragement – especially when your product or services are involved. My favorite Sports store, Gazelle Sports, does a great job at this. After purchasing a pair of running shoes, the sales representative (Vicki) sent me a note, encouraging my goal of participation in a marathon. Your followers want to know you stand behind them – not just your cash register.

3. Educate

Social media is not just about being social. To the contrary, your audience expects something in return for following you.  TOMS (shoes and now, eyeware), uses their blog for this purpose. The Toms blog covers a variety of topics around the mission of one-for-one (buy one, donate one). In fact, most blogs – commercial or not – serve this purpose. This is also one the reasons this site (ModernServantLeader.com) exists – to educate others on servant leadership.

4. Entertain

In person, we don’t spend time with others unless we enjoy their company. One aspect of that enjoyment is some form of entertainment. Social media is the same. If you entertain participants, they are more likely to come back. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin just did a great job of entertaining online – by announcing the launch of Virgin Volcanic – their plan to journey to the center of a volcano. Among the passengers: Tom Hanks, star of the “Joe vs. the Volcano” movie. You guessed it – April Fools!

5. Equip

We are now more connected than any generation before us. As a result, what you know is less important than how quickly you can learn a topic. Therefore, subscribers and fans appreciate resources like lists, diagrams, how-to guides and other digital content they can reference. The American Management Association is excellent at equipping fans and customers. The company’s twitter account shares outstanding resources for free (both their own, original and other, external content).

6. Exhibit

To be a successful leader in any field, you need to exhibit authenticity. Without practicing what you preach, your followers will not last long. Social media technology provides the greatest platform for extending this ability.  When I think of someone who exhibits authenticity in social media, I look to Tony Dungy. Tony does a great job of reflecting his passion for Christ, the NFL, family and ministry work. While others use social media to advance a commercial purpose alone, Dungy reflects who he is, as a whole person, through social media.

7. Expedite

Responsiveness in social media is more important than many realize. It may be “better late than never”, but it’s also “the quicker the better”. Nothing says “you are important to me” more, than a quick response. The first person to amaze me with this practice was Michael Hyatt – then CEO of Thomas Nelson. Mr. Hyatt’s responses to my inquiries were blazing fast. If you want your fans, followers, subscribers and customers to recognize how you value them, expedite your responses.

Social media success may be achieved without some of these practices. However, to really excel, you need these practices and the more you have, the greater your likelihood of success.

Question: What other practices do you find important to social media success?

We’ve had it wrong all along. It’s not social media, but “media, social”. What we consume is media first, social second. We still consume news, facts, tips, advice, marketing, videos and other media primarily but as a benefit, we now get a social aspect as well. Therefore, it’s Media, Social and not Social Media.

It’s Not About What People Had for Lunch

I still laugh when I hear someone suggest that Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms are all about personal “stuff”. My favorite is, “I don’t want to know what people are eating for lunch.”

Sure, there are people with too much time on their hands, sharing useless information. I can’t tell you how many there are though, because I don’t follow them. You probably should not follow them neither.

Consuming the Same Media with a Social Attribute

As I wrote almost 2 years ago, “social media” now makes the the computer one of the most personable mediums ever.  Ironically, this technology that was once bashed for depersonalizing the office, can now be hailed as one of the best methods to be more personal with stakeholders.

The same media, content, message, marketing or other communications you received before are now personalized, targeted, specific and therefore more relevant.

How You Use It Governs Your Perception

You’re right, social media can be useless at the office. However, have you tried Media, Social?

Before Online Reviews

In the old days, selling your product or service consisted of developing the item, selecting a market and screaming your message as loud and often as you could. Whether your message traveled on TV, Print or Radio, the model was consistent – a one-way message.

There was no real discussion or sharing of that information or individual experiences among consumers. Sure, word of mouth existed, but it was still one consumer to one consumer. There was no mass-channel. That has all changed. Welcome to the world of mass dialog.

Mass Dialog

Through online reviews, sentiments about you and your company are shared, substantiated and escalated. This happens at lightening-fast speeds. Releasing a new product that has a flaw? One user posts it, then overnight 100 others see it and many comment on it. The comment traffic escalates the page ranking on Google. Now, anyone who searches for your product online is immediately presented with your marketing page and the feedback by 100 users about this flaw.

In the old world, that one person would have called your support center, explained the problem and likely been satisfied with your response. You controlled the message and, to some extent, the consumer experience. End of story. In the new world the man behind the curtain is exposed for the world to see – ugly boxers, beer belly and all.

Will You Engage?

With this negative potential, why would you want customer reviews? Because this conversation will happen with or without you. If the feedback is not on your own website, it will be in other public forums. The only question is this: will you engage in the dialog? If you don’t, the result will not be positive. That much is guaranteed. If you do participate in the mass dialog, you have the ability to:

1. Learn and grow – improving your products and services.
2. Listen and hear – understanding your consumers better than ever before.
3. Respond and react – showing your consumers you care and choose to support them.
4. Inform and influence – educating your consumers and driving a more positive message.

Good News for Quality Products and Services

I hope you have a quality product. I hope you desire candor and transparency in your consumer messaging. If so, the new world is a great place to be. If not, your days are limited.

Those with the best products and services, supported by candid, transparent and consistent communication will benefit. After all, isn’t this the best way to serve your stakeholders anyway?

Question: How have customer reviews influenced your consumer behavior?

We all have a growing number of accounts, websites and other security measures which require an endless number of passwords. However, a primary rule of good password practices is to never use the same password twice. Another standard password practice is to reset your passwords every 30, 60 or 90 days. So how in the world do you keep all those passwords straight?

I learned some great tips over the years that helped me remember my passwords and when to change them. More important, I learned a way to make password changes creative and actually enjoyable. Here are some of my favorite tips:

1. Objectives as Passwords

Make your password relevant. Make each password a personal objective to remind and inspire you at each sign in. It is important this objective is not something an external party could guess (such as an objective you state publicly). Here are some sample objectives:

- Weight loss goal
- Debt reduction target
- Someone you want to build a strong relationship with
- A project you want to launch
- Sales goal for the quarter

2. Include the Time

3. Substitute Numbers for Letters

4. Rotate on Key Dates

5. Group According to Risk Exposure

Examples

Interested in the Catalyst East discount? Find your discount code at the end of this post…

In October, I will (finally) attend my first Catalyst Leadership Conference. In order to prepare for it the best way possible I researched all the speakers and investigated lab options. Yet, I wanted something more real-time. I needed something that constantly fed me the latest information on relevant topics, whenever I wanted. So, naturally, I turned to Twitter.

I keep Twitter streams running on a separate monitor with columns for various interests, such as brands and websites I manage as well as relevant #leadership hash tags. To monitor these streams all day, I use Hootsuite. The streams alert me when there is a lot of discussion about something important to me. With this system already in place, I thought, why not add a Twitter list for the Catalyst East conference?

The result is the Catalyst East Twitter List with 54 accounts (at present). Please, share the list with other conference attendees.

Uses for Twitter Lists at Events

It occurred to me, after creating the list, a similar approach may be useful to you and others. In addition to conferences, here are some other events for which you may find a custom twitter list useful:

1. Meetings

Sales presentations, board meetings, union sessions or even community council sessions are all good opportunities to leverage twitter lists. Especially for public meetings. You can share the list with all attendees a week or two ahead of time so attendees can familiarize themselves with topics each member is considering.

2. Interviews

If you’re headed to an interview, checking social feeds of your potential interviewers is always a good idea. If they have a public Twitter stream, you may want to put them in a list. Be careful on this one though, lists are typically public and your list creation could be misinterpreted. Use your best judgement.

3. Churches

Visiting pastors, active on social media, would especially appreciate these lists. Why not keep a list of congregational members? Your youth group might not be thrilled at first, but the transparency may call attention to the public nature of these communications and the opportunities and risks inherrent.

4. Rallies

I’m a biker, when my other priorities allow me to be. Before heading to my next rally, I’ll be making a similar list. What rallies are you headed to that attendees would appreciate a Twitter stream and list for?

5. Trade Shows

Trade shows are full of marketing. There are likely hundreds of people vying for attention. A Twitter list will help consolidate them all for attendees and identify key booths, organizations and / or products in attendance.

Creating Your Own Twitter List for an Event

The next time you’re preparing to attend an event, here’s how I suggest you compile your own, “Event Preparation Twitter List”:

1. Conference Organizers

These are the easiest individuals to identify far in advance. For example, I visited the Catalyst Space Team page and found the Twitter accounts of everyone that works on these great events. Most conferences and major events have similar pages.

2. Speakers

Speakers are not always identified long in advance. In fact, chances are you will need to revisit this page as the event draws close and update your Twitter list accordingly. Here is the Catalyst speakers page I referenced.

3. Organizations

Most events have presenting organizations. This is especially true for Trade Shows. Whether it is an associated trade floor or conference sponsors, most of these organizations will also have relevant Twitter accounts you could add to the list. Catalyst’s sponsor page can be found here.

4. Attendees

This is a tough one. If your event is small to medium size and you have access to the names, you could add attendees to the list. However, I would suggest making this a separate list. Many people may not want to follow everyone attending. As for Catalyst, sorry gang, even if I had all your names, I don’t think I’d track down all 13,000+.

So, if you’re planning to attend Catalyst – or even just wish you were – check out the Catalyst East Twitter List. If you’re attending another event, consider making your own list. I bet the attendees (and organizers) will appreciate it.

For those of you attending Catalyst East in Atlanta this year, you can get a single registration for only $249 (regular $319) – a 22% discount, via the Modern Servant Leader: use discount code MSL at Catalyst’s online registration. But hurry, this discount code is only good until September 22nd!

Question: What are other good uses for Twitter Lists?

There’s a lot of conjecture online these days about whether or not Facebook is really in any trouble from Google+. In fact, I’m surprised how many of the experts seem to think Facebook has nothing to worry about. Here’s why I think Facebook has plenty to fear:

1. It’s Google: Yes, Facebook is huge in the social media circles. However, Google is huge in most online markets. Where they are not yet the dominant player, Google easily could be, with a strategic investment from their war chest.

2. Privacy Failures: Facebook has repeatedly upset their users with poor decisions regarding privacy policies and practices. Granted, Google could do the same, but there seems to be a greater trust of Google these days.

3. Messaging: Facebook’s messaging model is still clunky. Whether it is chat, wall posts, direct messages or other communications on Facebook, the solutions don’t integrate well with each other or, more important, external tools. Google+ already integrates with your gmail and chat.

4. Other Integrations: The possibilities are relatively endless. From apps to analytics, from storage to blogging, if you want your social media platform seamlessly integrated with other solutions, Google+ is liable to do it quicker, easier and in a more familiar format.

5. It’s Google: Yes, I already said this. But many people make the analogy to Facebook vs. MySpace and then discount Google+ because MySpace was so poorly managed and Facebook already has so many (750 Million) users. Well, Google search, alone, in 2010, had 350 Million users. Gmail was estimated at 100 Million in 2010 as well. Adjust for growth in the past several months, add in users from Google’s many other applications, and the argument of Facebook’s user base shrinks rapidly.

Now, do I think Facebook will vanish quicker than you can say “MySpace”? No. Do I think Facebook will deteriorate into poor quality, distasteful content like late night television B-Rated movies? No. However, I do believe Google+ will take a significant user base from Facebook. History has shown that a single geography really supports only one dominant, comprehensive social platform. Therefore, if Google+ eats into Facebook’s user base anywhere near 50%, the monolith that once was Facebook just may tumble.

Question: What do you think? Does Facebook need to worry about Google+?
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Every once and a while, something reminds us what we’re doing is making a difference. This week held one of those moments, when I read that Alltop.com, one of the premier blog listing sites, chose to list our site under their leadership category. More than a simple directory, Alltop aggregates the best post from many of the most popular sites. It’s an honor, for example, to be listed among the greats like Michale Hyatt, Seth Godin, HBR, Wharton and others.

Mind you, I am still waaaaaaay down at the bottom…

It is the mission of Modern Servant Leader to spread servant leadership awareness, adoption and action. Therefore, it’s great to know that so many people going to Alltop will find us among the leadership references.

If you’re an Alltop.com user, please, add ModernServantLeader.com to your Alltop page. You’ll find MSL under Leadership. Thanks for including us, Alltop. Here’s to moving up that list a little…

I admit, as a technology manager, I may be a bit biased here. However, at the risk of sounding egotistical, I believe technology managers possess especially strong leadership potential. In fact, there is a growing trend of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) becoming Chief Operating Officers (COOs), Presidents and CEOs. In your own organization, have you noticed how often IT leads the organization in new policies and best practices? I think this is because our colleagues in these departments are among the best educated and experienced in leadership principles, such as the following:

Innovation

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” -  Steve Jobs

Leadership demands an ability to look to the future and understand broad trends in a given industry in order to develop tomorrow’s solutions. Individuals working in technology are always dealing with what’s coming next. Most technology projects are depreciated over 3 years – 5 at most. The useful life is often less. As a result, technology managers are among the best when it comes to innovation.

Risk Management

“The man who knows it can’t be done counts the risk, not the reward.” – Elbert Hubbard

There is a delicate balance of risk and reward in cultural leadership. Organizations need leaders that understand this balance and the degree of risk that is acceptable for their business models. When balancing the costs, development time, dependencies and other risks, technology managers become proficient at risk mitigation.

Communication

“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.” – Lee Iacocca

Leaders who can not communicate effectively rarely remain leaders very long. Communication is also constantly required to be effective in technology management. The pace of change in information technology combined with the ever increasing dependency upon technology to do our daily jobs, results in effective communication as a basic skill of IT managers.

Listening

“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.” – Albert Einstein

While effective communication includes listening, this is a skill so especially in demand for leaders that it deserves it’s own section. Similarly, effective technology managers are required to constantly listen to their customers. Business needs and organization requirements are constantly changing, evolving. As a result, the technology needs of stakeholders are always in flux. Technology managers that effectively build relationships with their customers must be great listeners.

Change Management

“Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.” — Niccolo Machiavelli

If your organization is not changing with the times, it will lose to the competition. Therefore, leaders must be effective at managing change. The combination of constant innovation in their field, balanced with the communication necessary to support it, make technology managers particularly effective change managers as well.

Cross Functional Support

”Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” – John Maxwell

To be an effective leader for an organization, you must be empathetic to a diverse array of needs. I’ve always said, their are two leadership roles in an organization that must be especially adept at comprehending the broad needs of stakeholders: Chief Financial Officers and Chief Information Officers. CFOs must understand the needs of each department to effectively leverage financial assets. CIOs must understand the business needs of each department to effectively prioritize and deliver information solutions.

So while I may be a bit biased, I’m not surprised to see a growing number of technology managers being recognized for broader leadership roles in their organizations. After all, who better to lead your organization than one who grasps innovation, balances risks, communicates effectively, listens intently, manages change and provides support to all stakeholders?

Question: Do you see benefits in the growing trend of technology managers promoted to broad leadership roles?

It has been one of those days. A day when my work life alignment is not in check and I feel particularly frustrated. Worse, I am behind in my blog posts for the week. Although it’s late at night, I want to get something at least drafted for you. As I sit here, considering what to write, it occurs to me, I should really write about this frustration I am wrestling with. That’s when it hits me: I already wrote about frustration. In fact, I wrote about frustration as a warning sign to leaders. As I reread the previous post on frustration, it all came back to me. I remember what I wrote, the lessons I shared and the advice I now needed to follow myself.

This is why I love blogging: it’s as much a help to me as I intend for others. Blogging helps me hold a mirror to myself. It reminds us of who we are, who we want to be and how we want to help others. By publishing my principles and perspectives, I create transparency, candor and accountability. I’ve heard other writers make similar comments. Even corporate blogs can recognize these benefits and look themselves in the mirror.

Benefits of the Blogging Mirror For Individuals

Benefits of a blog for the individual author include:

Transparency: By blogging about any particular topic, an individual is able to share the message directly with a broad audience. This eliminates any misconceived perceptions, helps dispel rumors and allows a mass dialogue where a single person can communicate directly with an audience at any time of day or night over an extended time.

Candor: Ironically, the very medium that has been accused of creating too much anonymity is now enabling the greatest degree of meaningful, personal interaction where truth reigns supreme. The Internet provides a platform where individuals can be as anonymous as they want. Yet, most of the top bloggers benefit by leveraging this medium to bare themselves openly and candidly to readers. This creates trust and trust spurs meaningful dialog among many other benefits.

Accountability: I presented the perfect example of this above. I preached a sermon on turning frustration into a warning that you were doing something wrong. Yet, there I stood after a full day of frustration, without recognizing the warning signs myself. Many bloggers, like myself, realize their blog is a tool to improve themselves by keeping record of their perspectives and principles for later accountability.

Benefits of the Blogging Mirror For Organizations

Blogging is not just a platform to benefit individuals authors. Organizations may use blogs for a similar purpose:

Transparency: The Internet has often been compared to the printing press in terms of impact to the evolution of communication. Rightly so. Public relations departments seeking to strengthen stakeholder relationships are increasing the transparency of their organizations. The mass dialog enabled by blogs and subsequent comments ensures an organization can be more transparent than ever before in history.

Candor: “…and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). In today’s media rich environment, everyone has an angle. This is both a blessing and a curse. A blog could accuse your organization of false intentions and easily broadcast that message (a curse). However, your organization can also respond directly and immediately with the truth (a blessing).

Accountability: This is my favorite perspective on blogs for organizations. The mirror shines brightest on organizations by creating greater accountability. While many organizations are leveraging blogs for marketing and promotional purposes, some have taken it a step further and created this accountability. My favorite is the Southwest Airlines Blog, where they not only cover strategic initiatives but connect with employees and customers in a manner that reflects consistency in their values and servant leadership principles.

Of course, benefiting from a blog in this manner requires the commitment of the individual or organization. I’m far from perfect, but I’m learning to uphold this mirror to myself. Tomorrow, I will return to the office with a fresh perspective and watch for further frustration as warning sign.

Question: Do you or your organization run a blog? Is it being used as mirror for transparency, candor or accountability and why or why not?

We all seek something different from social media. The author wants a method of getting the word out on their latest book. The corporation wants a way to keep customers informed and connected. The charity wants to reach potential contributors. The church wants a way to keep members informed of the latest events while reaching the lost with The Good News.  Whatever your goal though, consider, what does your Twitter Follower Ratio say about you and your organization?

Contributor vs. Consumer

Many people use social media primarily as a means of consuming information. In contrast, some accounts, especially organizations, use it as a tool for disseminating information more than consuming it. These accounts are greater contributors than consumers. Each approach suggests a different ratio. The contributor likely has a larger scale of followers, while the consumer likely follows more accounts.

Scale

The scale of your ratio also says a lot about your intent and use of Twitter:

Small Scale (1 to 100): If you have less than 100 followers then you are either just starting out, or very selective about who you follow and use Twitter primarily as a consumer. The small scale user generally is not viewed as a contributor so much as a person who knows how to leverage technology to keep in regular and frequent contact with a select group of individuals.

Medium Scale (100 to 1,000): Users with several hundred followers may be growing their account with an intent to be strong contributors, or be focused on acquiring as many followers as possible and still in the early stages of that plan. Either way, most individuals in this category are likely using the tool as more than a means of keeping in touch with a select group of individuals.

Large Scale (1,000 to 5,000): If your follower volume is in the thousands, you are either a liberal follower as well, or known for using an auto-follow back tool. These tools often drive people to follow you, simply to assure themselves of an incremental follow, regardless of their interest in your feed. It is unlikely you are legitimately following those listed as followers – at least not on a regular basis. After all, in order to read messages from thousands of people, you would need to invest entire days to keeping up with your twitter stream.

Huge Scale (5,000 or more): You are likely either aggressively following others with the simple objective of increasing your follower base as quickly as possible or, you are a strong influencer, admired by many. Even in the latter, you likely used an auto-follower at one time, which drove your numbers up. The exception to this rule is the celebrity, author or other public figure with a large following outside the Twitterverse.

Twitter Follower Ratio

I suggest the order of Following to Followers, based on an assumption that most accounts ultimately prefer a larger number of followers than followed. At least, most accounts that are interested in or concerned about what the ratio says about them would desire the higher number of followers.

More Followers Than Followed: This suggests you are an influencer and one who’s message is received well by others. You are selective in who you follow and frequently recommended by others. If your scale is large, this perspective is reinforced. If your scale is small though, it may also mean you simply use the account primarily to broadcast messages. In other words, you contribute more than you consume.

More Followed Than Followers: If your scale is small, this may mean you’re just getting started. However, if your scale is large, this likely means you’ve been aggressively following others with the intent of increasing your follower base. This may also mean you a re more of consumer than contributor to the conversation.

Examples

We’ll use my own account as an example. As I write this, I follow 250 people and I have 425 followers, a 250:425 ratio. Simplifying that number by the greatest common denominator (25), you get a 10:17 ratio (tip: if you don’t know the greatest common denominator, use the GCD function in Excel). As a result, I am in the medium scale (original figure, 250:425), with more followers than followed. This suggests I am contributing more than consuming, but likely still early in doing so.

Twitter Assessment Services

There are plenty of services out there that will conduct an automated assessment of your account. These services will consider more than just your ratio and look into items like how many tweets you sent, how long your account was active, the number re-tweets and times you are included in lists. Two of the most popular services are Klout and Twitter Grader.

Match Your Intent

The point here is not to worry if your ratio suggests you are using Twitter for something other than the purpose you claim. Instead, just know that this is becoming an increasingly addressed concern by some of the world’s leading social media advocates. As social media analytical tools like those mentioned above evolve, I believe auto-follow tools, individuals perceived to do anything possible to increase followers and the like will be frowned upon. Therefore, now is the time to look at these numbers and determine for yourself if action is needed to align your ratio with your message and intent.

Question: So what does your Twitter Follower Ratio say about you?

Whether you are a CEO, college freshman, pastor, domestic engineer or anywhere in between, social media is likely an increasingly important communication tool. In the future, social networking will become so integrated with all our communication tools that it will be just another part of our regular processes. Until that time though, we must struggle with a variety of platforms. We have one site for personal use, one professional and still others for jobs, hobbies or specific focus areas. Until we see the tightened integration of social media platforms though, I find that knowing your social media hierarchy and following some basic principles will keep your messages clear, effective and aligned with the right platform.

With so many platforms available to us, we spend too much time updating status messages and too little time interacting. To solve this problem, most tools have enabled integration with other services for status updates. This works well, provided you keep the status flow one-way and know your hierarchy. The image above reflects my own social media hierarchy. Here are the guidelines I followed in creating my own:

1. Twitter Feeds All: To keep it simple, I have Twitter feeding all social networks. Some tools offer the ability to update only sites identified by hashtags in your post (#fb for facebook and #li for linkedin, as an example). However, given the limited characters, I just feed them all and keep my twitter posts more professional.

2. Feed Twitter Selectively: To avoid any loops, I chose not to feed Twitter from other sites, unless the feed is intended to update all sites. For example, I enable Foursquare and my Blog to post to Twitter, because I like to update all sites with with these feeds.

3. Target Your Platforms: With the above exceptions, each platform I leverage has a primary purpose. I use Ning for the Servant Leadership Network (professional), Facebook for friends and family updates (Personal), LinkedIn for business networking (Professional), my blog for Servant Leadership content (professional) and other sites for similarly targeted areas.

One of the benefits of social media is to allow us to be ourselves more in professional settings. In fact, I enjoy that my colleagues can learn more about my personal interests as well – if they so desire. As a result, the intent here is not to say you have to be careful about crossing your messages. However, the more appropriate and focused your message is on each platform, the better I find the reception and resulting influence. Therefore, if you struggle with too many status updates or fear your messages are not as clear or strong as they could be, I suggest setting up your own social media hierarchy.

Question: Do you have a social media hierarchy? How do you leverage each platform?

In our increasingly technical workplace, it seems we fail to carry over basic principles from the industrial era. Although our tools evolve, the quality of our tools, the capacity of these tools and maintenance of the equipment still impact the morale and effectiveness of our teams. As a leader in your organization, are you ensuring your employees have the tools and support they need to be effective?

Equipment Quality

If you ran a machine shop, would you give the operators dull blades, slow machines or poor lighting? Of course not. Doing this would result in unhappy employees, decreased output and higher overall costs. Then why do so many companies run outdated software on older, slower machines? You may have a top performer who is limited by their equipment. It’s like putting a lawnmower engine in a Porsche.

Workspace

If you ran an engineering company, would you limit your drafting tables to 15 inches wide? Doubtful. Your architects would be incredibly frustrated by the confined space within which to review large drawings. Therefore, why do so many companies still only offer 15″ screens or even a single monitor, rather than dual screens? Desktop space is desktop space, be it physical or virtual. The more you have, the easier it is to do your job. The cost for virtual desk space is even less than the physical desk space when you account for installation and maintenance.

Technical Support

Finally, if you ran a transportation business, would you contract all your maintenance work to a service provider several hours away who does not understand your equipment? Then why do so many companies outsource IT support to the lowest cost provider, without any value placed on performance or service levels? When your employees encounter problems with equipment, performance is impacted.

As a leader in your organization, don’t forget the lessons we learned from the industrial era. The right tools and support for your employees can make all the difference. As most organizations downsize and outsource the implementation and support of critical tools for their teams, you can differentiate by ensuring your teams have the tools they need to be effective. Don’t mistake all changes or outsourcing as bad. Instead, ensure your team has the right support from whomever your providers are. Conditions like Service Level Agreements (consider guaranteed response and resolution times) may cost a bit more. However, employees getting better tools and quicker resolutions of problems will be happier, more effective, save you money in the long-run and deliver greater results.

Question: How does technology impact your morale and effectiveness? What other tips do you have?

October is Cyber Security Month and a great opportunity for organizational leaders to educate the company on, promote implementation of and demonstrate their commitment to computer security. I can tell you from experience, this is an incredibly important topic for all organizations in the 21st century. Here are some ideas on how you can, in October or anytime, help promote best practices in information technology security.

Educate

Most serious data theft incidents are executed not by criminals with excellent programming skills, but by individuals convincing employees to offer up their passwords or by finding account information in the trash, on post-it notes or through similar, “low-tech” means. This is typically attributed to poor awareness of those employees. Believe it or not, comments like, “I never knew I should not keep my login and password on a post-it note attached to my laptop” are quite common. Here are some ideas for leaders to help educate their employees:

1. Posters: Eye-catching posters alerting employees to basic security practices can quickly communicate best practices to the team.

2. Flyers: Leave flyers at each employee’s desk reminding them of concepts like strong password tips, when to update anti-virus packages or other tips.

3. Login Prompts: You can have your IT department post reminders about security when each person logs into their PC. This is a good, constant reminder.

Promote

Promotion of important security practices is a great way to leverage Cyber Security month. Here are some ideas for leaders to directly promote IT security best practices.

1. Announce: Send out an announcement to the company. Include in this a list of the team members responsible for computer security and how much you appreciate their efforts. Ask those members to provide you with statistics on the number of threats blocked in the last year – their answers may surprise you.

2. Fair: My current employer does a great job of this – though it usually requires larger organizational resources. Try hosting a computer security fair. This includes bringing in security vendors to set up stands and discuss common issues with your employees.

3. Example: Chances are, you’ve experienced a computer security incident in your past. Whether it was a simple virus or a major breach at a previous employer. Share these examples and what you learned with your team. This real-world experience will help drive the point home and make the matter more real.

Demonstrate

Of course, as the leader, it is important that you lead by example. Here are some basic ways to ensure you’re not caught executing poor computer security practices:

1. Ctrl+Alt+Del: Lock your PC every time you step away. Leaving yourself logged on to a computer not in your sight, is like walking away from a safe holding all your corporate secrets with the door wide open. Lock it up every time.

2. Update: Make sure your software is up to date – especially your anti-virus application. Software updates often include security improvements to new and increasing threats. Software updates help you close these vulnerabilities.

3. Backup: While not directly a security concern, it sure would be embarrassing if your PC is ruined by a virus or other incident and you lose important information. As the leader, you should be sure you are treating the company assets you hold on your computer as the valuable items they are.

If you’re not familiar with these IT security issues or other computer safety trends, take this opportunity to speak with the IT leader in your organization accountable for security. Then, take the opportunity to educate, promote and demonstrate the important of IT security in the company.  Believe me, this small investment in computer security is well worth it!

Question: What other tips do you have for promoting computer security awareness in organizations?

The best leaders today understand the power of relationships, especially when it comes to business. As a result, most leaders have a strong network of colleagues that, over the years, become friends. These friendships and business partnerships extend online as well. However, many straggling organizations still insist upon blocking traffic to “social sites”. In contrast, the best led companies do not fear social media – they embrace it. The strongest leaders leverage the benefits of social technology while addressing the risks in a manner that empowers their teams but protects the company. Below are 5 reasons great leaders should not fear social media and a balanced reflection on the risks.

1. Best Friends At Work
Who still believes that work is impersonal? When was it necessary to ensure that your business contacts are not also friends? Need we remind some organizations of the Gallup Organization’s findings from their study of high performing organizations:

Gallup… observed that employees who report having a best friend at work were¹:

• 43% more likely to report having received praise or recognition for their work in the last seven days.
• 37% more likely to report that someone at work encourages their development
• 35% more likely to report coworker commitment to quality.
• 28% more likely to report that in the last six months, someone at work has talked to them about their progress
• 27% more likely to report that the mission of their company makes them feel their job is important
• 27% more likely to report that their opinions seem to count at work.
• 21% more likely to report that at work, they have the opportunity to do what they do best every day.

2. Companies Don’t Buy & Sell, People Do
When it comes to major agreements and long term commitments, people do not simply buy something from a company. Instead, they build partnerships and gain understanding from those partners about that company and their products. Then, business partners create mutually beneficial, value generating agreements together. The net result, after years of success on both ends of those deals is a stronger relationship, often extending into friendships. Those friendships can generate trust and efficiency which transcends employers, creates stronger networks and brings value to the next company by which either partner is employed. No longer does a person bring only their experience and skills to a company that hires them, but they bring the skills, experience and trust of their network as well.

3. Who Do You Want in Your Foxhole?
When times get tough, who do you want in your foxhole with you? Someone you only know based on their numbers, contracts, functional requirements and other formalities? Do you really think such an individual will stick their neck out for you or go that extra mile, unless the compensation is there? Or, do you want someone you’ve known well, whose family you know by name and whose favorite charity you supported last year? If nothing else, it helps to know your business partner’s spouse will yell at them if they screw up a deal they committed to you on.

4. Innovation
Structured, internal, corporate innovation alone is too constrained for today’s global economy. Innovation does not work well in a vacuum. The more creative outlets and inlets you provide your entire staff, the greater the chance they will discover breakthrough innovations. As your staff listens to their friends complain about how the products your competitors make, fail to meet their needs, they will better understand the implications of your engineering, research & development. The more your teams hear their contacts mention the need for someone to invent a solution to xyz problem, the greater the chance your company will create and solve that new market problem.

5. Mass Dialogue
Never before in history, has the opportunity for mass dialogue existed in such a manner as what social media provides. Print media creates mass, one way communication. Television does the same. Static website are no better. Previous communications technologies equate to shouting at your customers. With social media, feedback mechanisms like rated reviews, number of views and frequency of comments provide a means by which leaders can proactively hear the unified voice that is their consumer mass. This creates, in essence, a platform by which leaders can carry on a mass dialogue, like never before.

Dark Side
Don’t get me wrong, their are risks inherent to social media as well. Yes, your employee could reveal some deep, dark, corporate secret. Or, someone claiming to speak on your organization’s behalf may slip and act unprofessionally in a business forum. There may even be a greater volume of technical risks, such as computer viruses, worms and social engineering in these mediums. However, the solution to these risks are the same they’ve always been: education, training, policy and appropriate network security. The solution is not cutting off your company from opportunities for fear of the unknown.

In the end, as technical leaders in your organization, it is up to you to set the expectations of the company with regard to innovative opportunities. This evolution in communication technology is no different. The next time you debate blocking the latest social media site, consider, instead, joining the site and putting your great staff to task in finding the right way to keep that channel open for the corporation to leverage all benefits, without exposing you to the usual risks.

1. http://gmj.gallup.com/content/511/Item-10-Best-Friend-Work.aspx July 10, 2009.

I was very fortunate to be offered a coveted pass to SAP’s Sapphire conference last week. This is one of the larger conferences in the IT industry and specifically targets senior managers and executives requiring large-scale applications. As a result, although I was there for my employer and focused my time on their solutions, I also observed some of the leadership styles by so many information technology executives attending this conference. The attendance was down – a sign of the economic times, but there remained a broad range of leadership styles represented by Speakers, Vendors and Bloggers. Below are observations on the leadership styles these individuals presented at the conference*.

Hasso Plattner file photo from SAP Sapphire 2007 / CC BY-NC 2.0

Speakers & SAP Executives (Positive)
While commitments back at the office prevented me from catching all of the keynote speakers and SAP executives presenting, I was able to get to most of the top keynotes.

Opening Keynote: Abbe Mulders & Steven Levitt (Neutral)
Major themes for this conference included clarity, transparency, Sustainability and, of course, advances in technology. A promising start for SAP Executive leadership and speaker expectations. The conference kicked off with Ms. Abbe Mulders, ASUG Vice Chairperson, Dow Corning Corporation CIO and Mr. Steven Levitt author of FREAKONOMICS. Abbe provided a good welcome and spoke of the power of ASUG, (the American SAP User Group). Again, a plus for recognizing the power of users, collaboration and support. Levitt provided a very revealing life history that included the fact that his father was not stellar in medical studies and practice, but chose the very uncommon field of intestinal gas. It worked for him – he became recognized as an expert in his field, even including a GQ article dubbing him “The King of Farts”. Following in his footsteps, in a manner, the younger Levitt found himself terrible at Math – a bad sign for economists. However, he focused on very unique circumstances in which very few “self-respecting” economists practiced. It worked for him as well. This emphasis on “anything’s possible” when you focus on the right area, was also a positive for leadership.

The only real negative from the opening Keynote was Levitt’s surprising factor that drunk walkers are 8 times more likely to die than drunk drivers. Shocking as this may be, he avoided addressing the risks to others in equivalent detail. One would think drunk drivers are far more likely to kill others than drunk walkers. A setback for transparency by speakers at the conference.

Léo Apotheker (Positive)
Well rehearsed and spoken, Apotheker presented the importance of clarity and transparency SAP provides its clients to their customers. Also surprisingly strong was this Co-CEO of SAP’s message on sustainability. Apotheker claimed the SAP sustainability roadmap is the first in their industry and set a goal for the organization to make every business process sustainable. Strong points for good leadership. Apotheker’s style tended toward a traditional corporate leader – befitting his role.

Ian Kimbell (Positive)
Mr. Kimbell, SAP’s self-proclaimed “Demo Boy” was first introduced at the conference while demonstrating solutions for Mr. Apotheker’s keynote. Probably the most polished of all presenters, Kimbell seemed more comfortable on stage than most people are simply in their own skin. Kimbell’s demonstrations, humor and general ease on stage was so good, in fact, that some people have questioned the reality behind his demonstrations and the effort required to achieve similar goals – was the demonstration too simplified? Still, Kimbell is to be applauded, especially for his later performance, balancing the ever-dynamic Hasso Plattner. Kimbell presented strong leadership through thorough preparation and charisma. A traditional leadership style, perhaps leaning a bit toward the hero-worship model, but positive nonetheless.

Hasso Plattner (Positive)
Co-Founder of SAP, he’s been called the company’s “Rock Star”. In a conference that touted transparency, there were none more transparent than Hasso Plattner. His presentation was very technical for the crowd, but still remarkably clear given his to-and-fro speaking points. With comments like, “SAP may not want to tell you this” or speaking to examples that were still in proof-of-concept phase, Plattner suggested the most down-to-earth mentality of those on stage that day. If you wanted the reality of a situation, you knew Plattner was your person. Whether he could be considered a servant-leader would take much more research, but Plattner’s ability to operate at a remarkably senior level while balancing in-depth technical details was very promising. One thing’s certain, he did not over-rehearse his presentation.

Vendors (Negative)
Vendors with positive leadership were too difficult to identify from brief interactions on the conference floor. Poor leadership, on the other hand, was all too easy to spot. A wide variety of vendors were represented. From behemoths like IBM and Accenture, to companies most have never heard of. One vendor surprised me by asking if he could scan my badge without even speaking to me (a practice which would only add my name and contact information to his undoubtedly growing spammer’s list). Also standing out on the floor were the obvious ploys to attract attention through any means possible. I remained disappointed by the number of “Booth Beauties” (other terms are more common). I still find it hard to believe that companies with quality products should have any need for these tactics and therefore, made it a point to avoid these stands. Milder marketing ploys, were also prevalent, such as the expensive sport cars, power equipment and sizable freebies. While there were undoubtedly plenty of well-led organizations on the floor, unfortunately, the negative still stood out. This resulted in a set-back for overall conference leadership impressions. (Note: I am pleased to say that the vendors I work with were all professionally represented at the conference).

Bloggers (Positive)
Contributing to the discussions and education was a great group of bloggers. Twitter was a popular means of sharing thoughts and feedbcak on the presenters, while other bloggers shared their proposed articles to come, following the conference. Watching these groundswells in action at any conference is always exciting. Within minutes of a presenter’s notable commitment, the quote and feedback on that quote, was already online for the world to see and being discussed. Yes, social technology has truly brought the power to the people. Throughout the conference, though disagreements arose, it remained constructive on Twitter and blogs – another positive for the good guys and strong leadership from the Blogging community.

Now the conference is over, we’ve returned to offices piled full with issues to be addressed and fires to put out, and what have we learned? Besides the excellent lessons on SAP technology, strategy and opportunities, what have attendees experienced from a leadership perspective? They saw a positive side to SAP’s executives, a negative side from many vendors, and a positive leadership example from the blogging community. Net result? Kudos to SAP for not only presenting their technologies, strategy and people in a positive light, but for also a providing a net-positive leadership experience.

* Observations are from the conference only, I did not take into account their character or broader leadership methodologies.

Social Networking

As the personal computer replaced typewriters and the Internet evolved into common use, more critics began to panic that we, as a society, would lose our human touch. After all, just how personal can interaction be through computer screens? One wonders if they thought the same of the telephone. Even a man I greatly admire, James A. Autry, a thought leader on servant leadership and remarkably successful business man, devoted an entire section in one of his books to the theme that technology negatively impacts the ability for personal interaction (and servant leadership) to be successful. James and many of these critics were right in their observations given the state of technologies at that time – the late 80′s and early 90′s. Before social technology hit rev 2.0, everything was static, there was limited conversation and nobody saw the Internet as a place for friends to connect. Instead, you had a mess of static webpages. The closest thing to a personal touch from these early websites was a bunch of personal data that was broadcast to anyone at all. The problem was, only a select network of individuals wanted to read these individual’s broadcasts but there was no easily defined audience or targeting mechanism. That was then, this is now.

Then
Before Social Technology evolved into common place, in times that predate digital social networks, we had direct personal relationships based primarily on physical interactions. Those you knew living close to you, working in your office or family that visited semi-regularly were all in the know about your life’s events. Even your closest friends from high school or college – the select few who kept you updated in Christmas letters or shared their updated contact information with each subsequent move. These individuals all provided “warm fuzzies” when you heard an update every couple of months.

If there were major life events, such as weddings, funerals or even the occasional reunion, you would even travel far to see those closest to you. You’d reconnect briefly, be amazed at how much had changed over the years and regret that you had not stayed in “closer contact”. You’d promise to “do better this time” and maybe you would, for a couple of months at least, before the status quo returned and you’d meet up again at the next major life event….

And so it went for most of us. Sure, there were exceptions, those who were friends for life, those that didn’t move far from home and made sure to visit everyone when they returned to visit, perhaps even the occasional high school “clique” that never ended. But as a whole, I suspect most of us experienced something like the above – only maintaining even semi-regular contact with a very small subset of friends and colleagues. However, modern evolutions in social technology have changed all this and flipped the coin completely. We now have the opportunity, through the technical empowerment of social technology, to make and maintain our relationships on a more personal level than ever before.

Now
It is easier than ever to stay connected or reconnect with friends and colleagues. A quick Google of someone’s name is likely to identify a Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Ning, Naymz or similar networking reference. Physical vicinity is almost irrelevant. When you meet at the life event, you exchange your preferred profile space, go home, link up and now you’re getting daily one-liner updates from Twitter or a similar service. You suddenly realize that their child is the same age as yours or slightly ahead and, trusting them from the common bonds of your youth, may rely on them for advice. How did they get that thumb-sucking under control?

Perhaps you discover that your old college roommate went back for his law degree. As luck would have it, you needed someone to go over that new contract before you sign. Again, the common bond of trust is pre-existing and new business is drawn up with old friends. In the end, it becomes easier and easier to make ties with your personal life and professional roles. For some this may not be what they seek. Many people prefer a work-life balance, vs. a work-life alignment. But even if for purely personal reasons, the daily status updates, photo sharing and routine communication with friends becomes more simplistic and readily accessible.

Still Room For Improvement
Of course, social technology solutions are still far from perfect. Many of the social technology services are awkward on mobile devices. The proliferation of these technologies is still relatively limited and standards have not yet matured. In fact, the lack of connectivity for a majority of mobile devices or even decent user interfaces for many of those that are connected, limit the adoption rate of mobile social technology. Meanwhile, the elders of our society, the age group most unlikely to adopt new technologies, remain virtually untouched by social technology. However, as we mature as a society and more youth become adults and adults become elders, all familiar with these systems and solutions, the adoption rate will naturally expand accordingly. Finally, there remains too many competitors and redundant solutions. As competitors battle for market share (user base) and systems settle into niches, these standards will pan out as they do for all technologies. Before long, all these roadblocks will become speed bumps and social technology adoption and proliferation will complete.

How Do We, As Technology Leaders, Respond?
Great, so we recognize that social technology is making relationships more personal than ever before. We understand this brings a human touch back to the office that may have been lacking in the last decade. In fact, we may even see our friends and colleagues are more connected than ever. So what does that mean for you, as a technology leader? It means first and foremost that this is not a battle, it means that we need to leverage these resources ourselves and it means we need to align our business plans with the social technology present and future.

Not a Battle
How are you structuring your policies and security around social networking? Are you completely blocking Facebook and Myspace? What about LinkedIn and the more generally considered “professional sites”? How do you handle Ning, which consists of a mix of both personal and professionaly-focused networks? Sadly, the reality is there may be some increased security threats from these sites and so proper precautions should be taken. But if you think that your staff could only possibly use social networking and media sites for purely personal reasons, think again. Whether you immediately open up access to these resources for your employees or you plan for it in the future, only you can decide. One thing is certain though, social technology is not going away and it is an excellent resource for your employees – both personally and professionally. Consider shifting your policies from one of absolute opposition, to one of moderated temperance. Of course, excessive personal use that abuses corporate assets should always be addressed, but the line between personal and professional networking is a very gray one and difficult to define. Otherwise, employees that are completely blocked from such resources, intending to use it for professional networking purposes will feel stifled, lacking the tools they need to complete their job effectively and not empowered to perform their best.

Leverage These Resources Ourselves
Are you connected with social technology? How many friends do you have online? When was the last time you connected with your old colleagues? You know that position that you’ve been trying to fill for months? Having a solid network on LinkedIn, empowering you to query your most trusted advisers and former employees sure would be helpful. Imagine, with one message you could immediately ping most of your former colleagues and know immediately how any referrals you receive are connected to you.

Aligning Business Plans with Social Technology
Does the marketing plan at your company encompass how they plan to leverage social technology? If not, why not? Social Technology should be considered as regularly, if not more so, than print, television, email and web alone. Viral marketing is best and most cost effective online, something everyone wants to hear nowadays. Leveraging YouTube, product watch sites and email campaigns that don’t stink of force-fed ads are all low cost solutions to their traditional counterparts. What about your hiring strategy? Be sure to know what the discussion boards say about you as a manager (check eBossWatch for example) and as an employer (what do the hiring site discussions say?). Are you polling your own network online for hiring? In every new major initiative, within your own department and beyond, consider how social technology can help (or even hurt, if not properly addressed) your plans.

Yes, not so long ago, the Internet was evil, out to destroy our society by disconnecting us from the human touch. As the underlying technology evolves, adoption rates grow and interfaces become more familiar though, it is clear that social technology solutions have made our relationships more personal than ever before. There remains opportunities for improvement, but the fears of the past are fading and the promise of the future for both personal and professional opportunities to connect with friends and colleagues is immense. As a technology leader in your organization, it is up to you to ensure your teams realize this wave and help make it work for you.

Those of you in customer service know that, historically, a happy customer tells 5 people, while an unhappy customer tells 100. While that was true in the past and likely remains true for verbal communication, Web 2.0 functionality is leveling the playing field. In particular, through Blogging your customers may tell the same number of people – whether they are happy or unhappy.

A recent posting from one of the country’s leading ITIL consultants rained down unsolicited praise for FedEx. Although the source was a personal blog, the estimated 400 member readership contained many IT consultants, contractors and industry professionals – all of whom rely upon carriers for their business.

Now I can hear the naysayers already: “one could complain just as quickly” – and you’re right. That is precisely the beauty of this evolution in communication mediums. Like it or not, your customers will hear all the big customer service stories. It used to be that each bad incident was relatively self-contained. However, this is no longer the case.

Now, emotional (favorably or negatively) customers will log onto any of the growing number of vendor-neutral customer complaint boards, the Better Business Bureau, or industry discussion forums and distribute their thoughts. If customers Blog about it, you will see that incident quickly broadcast to hundreds of readers. The internet is undiscriminating and the communication is immediate. What are you doing to manage this environment? Are you:

• Monitoring relevant industry and consumer discussion boards?
• Surveying your largest customer’s for preferred communication channels?
• Researching customer service incidents online for “vent-sessions”?
• Offering your customers a direct online forum through your own site?
• All of the above?
• Something else?

Today’s leading organizations understand these benefits and challenges. Web 2.0 savvy-leaders are addressing the response in many different ways. You must be aware of these concerns and opportunities – leveraging the processes and related technologies for your benefit and avoiding greater detriment.

Benefits of Enterprise 2.0

I recently had someone challenge the benefits of social networking for the enterprise, suggesting there was no real value for such technology in the workplace. I came up with a quick list and decided to post it here:

Examples of benefits to social networking in the workplace include:

1. Collaboration: The more your employees can find out about each other, the quicker they can share ideas. For example, if you have a large number of staff, there is a great potential for duplicating research efforts. Through digital networking, it will be easier for your staff to self-identify complimentary projects and align their efforts.
2. Innovation: Your staff may have a great deal of common interests outside the office that could transfer into a profitable new line of business. For example, perhaps you produce electronics and an office club forms around bicycling. The result may be the greatest electronic innovation for cyclists in generations, produced by your company and not the competition.
3. Resource Identification: Content Management systems are great, but what if your staff does not use the right search term? Identifying experts within your company can be much easier, quicker and more cost effective through networking tools than traditional, structured, data hierarchies.
4. Stronger Community: As the famous Gallup Poll pointed out, employees with friends at work are much happier and more productive. Social networking will empower your staff self-identify individuals with similar interests, resulting in larger and stronger community within the workplace.
5. Increased Communication: Industry experts have predicted that social networking is much like email or the web itself – another evolution in communication mediums. As a result, it is not a question of whether to adapt social networking, but when. Mechanisms like chat and forum discussions further empower your staff to communicate more effectively and in a manner that is easy to capture and compile.

These are very high-level and I suspect there will be more as I think about it. However, I will keep running list here as I come across them. If you have some to add, I welcome your comments.

I should preface this one by stating it’s interesting what one’s mind thinks about when you are up for a 4 AM feeding with your newborn. However, I was sitting here staring at our Wii Balance Board during this particular feeding and remembered seeing some pretty fascinating hacks online.

The Wii system itself is pretty interesting. The use of relatively simple technology that is only moderately evolved from the days of the original Nintendo’s Duck Hunt emphasizes the ability of innovation in user interface to produce results as great as, or better than evolutions in graphics. But take that one step further and make these relatively simple technologies an open source platform for others to tweak and you have a plethora of opportunities for new Virtual Reality applications of inexpensive technologies.

Johnny Lee has shown how a nominal additional investment in hardware can produce a digital white board and highlights the benefits for educational institutions. He also shows how reversing the sensor bar and controller can produce a head tracking, VR helmet-like imitation. More recently, the Wii Balance Board has been hacked by guys in a German Artificial Intelligence lab and can be used to navigate Google Earth and virtual environments like World of Warcraft and Second Life. Who wouldn’t love to surf, both physically and figuratively, over their city anyway?

It is fascinating how, like so many successful evolutions of technology, Virtual Reality is not hitting us overnight with some single leap in evolution like so many predicted. Instead, it is creeping in among us through the continuous evolution of innovative interface implementations.

For more material on this topic, check out YouTube Wii Hacks and / or the clips below. As a bonus, in Johnny’s Lee’s famous hack video below, he mentions how YouTube has really expedited the evolution of innovations like these. Roughly quoting Johnny, “In 5 months an idea has gone from experimentation on my desktop to a commercially available product.”

Johnny Lee’s Hack Video, including VR head sensor:

The Wii Balance Board Hacks from Germany:

Business Week (BW) recently updated one of their hottest pieces from 2005. The article was on the impact of Blogs in the workplace. As a result, the June 2nd edition of BW highlighted the positive and negative impact of this evolution in communication on the workplace.

The metrics painted an interesting picture:

• 25% of U.S. adults online read a blog once a month (Forrester cited)
• IBM’s internal social network, “Beehive“, has 30,000 employees on it
• Twitter estimates 1 Million users now
• Dell’s service on Twitter has brought in $500k+, in new orders, in the last year
• Splogs (Spam Blogs) now account for 90% of all blog postings (though filters catch most)
• Technoratti now indexes 74 Million blogs (but only 5.2 Million are estimated as active)
• Best Buy’s social staff site, “Blue Shirt Nation” has 20,000 participants, most exited staff remain users

BW also had some good insights, both positive and negative, into the growing trends and impact at the workplace:

• “Millions of us are now hanging out on the Internet with customers, befriending rivals, clicking through pictures of our boss at a barbecue or seeing what she is reading at the beach. It’s as if the walls around our companies are vanishing and old org charts are lying on their sides”
• “This can be disturbing for top management who are losing control, at least in the traditional sense.”
• “…companies that don’t adapt are sure to get lots of (the downside)”
• “…we have developed top-down reflexes that are nearly Pavlovian. We have to reprogram ourselves.”
• “(employees) may see what technologies their competitors are putting into alpha tests and get the buzz on new rounds of financing.”
• “Work and leisure, colleague and rival; they all blend on these networks.”
• “…wikis raze traditional hierarchies: An intern can amend the work of a senior engineer.”
• “Managers have to make sure that quieter employees don’t lose out.”

The article sums things up nicely by stating “…the potential for both better and worse is huge, and it’s growing”. So not unlike other developments it is all about how each enterprise manages this evolution of communication. The question is, are you leveraging this evolution in communication for the benefit of your staff, customers and company? Your competitors are probably working on it now.

Whatever happened to those companies that didn’t put up a website anyway? Happy twittering.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my good friend Norman Reiss has a blog focused on Non-Profit IT and ePhilanthropy. Norman has worked in the non-profit space for many years now and has developed a wealth of knowledge in ePhilanthropy.

If you work in NPO technology and / or ePhilanthropy, I suggest adding his blog to your list. He’s now linked on this site as well.

Norman’s Blog: NonProfit Bridge
(Bridging Technology, Communications & Development to Implement ePhilanthropy Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations)

I have noticed a disturbing trend, for IT leaders (CIO, CTO, VP and Directors) in the mid-market to focus too much on the big picture and overlook the fundamentals. Sometimes, these executives that must also maintain an eye on the tactical become too absorbed in the crisis-of-the-moment and lose sight of the basics.

I was recently browsing one of the leading websites for IT management content, when there was an error in their application. The resulting screen display was the default error page for the web server (blocked out in the copy below):

Within an hour or so, the site was back up and functioning properly. Still, in that short period of time, the organization likely suffered a small impact to their credibility and provided lots of great information (web server version, database and version, method of connection between the two and application code structures) for would-be hackers. What (black-hat) hacker would not love to bring down and IT management content website?

In this case, it was an organization known for IT content that had (apparently) not yet customized their default website error pages. A simple, 15 minutes or so and the developers could have tailored the site for a more appropriate message.

All that said, it is easy to overlook these concerns. I confess, when I came across this error, the first thing I did was double check my own error page (on www.lichtenwalner.net). It is better now…. click here if you don’t believe me.